“What do we need to do to have a better Egypt?” |
New clubs “For A Better Egypt”
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Courtesy of Better Egypt FOR “A BETTER EGYPT” WE UNITE: 55 of the students at the comference celebrate a final resolution on the first step to creating “a better Egypt.” |
In the next three weeks, private universities all over Egypt will be setting up branches of an organization called “For a Better Egypt” in an attempt to tackle Egypt’s problems one step or project at a time.
The decision was part of a list of resolutions finalized at the first “For a Better Egypt” conference held April 18-21 at the Université Francaise d’Egypte (UFE). Although 200 university students were invited, only 80 participated.
“I’m very disappointed that less than 50% showed up,” said Ahmed Korayem, the conference chairman. “But maybe having less people is what helped us come up with results more efficiently.”
Though the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Student Union (SU) was invited, it did not participate in the conference. “I was really hoping they would participate; [their] SU is the most effective and influential. They know how to take steps,” said Nada Taalab, a fourth year UFE SU member.
Mohamed Yussr, SU president, said he asked conference organizers to see if the conference dates could be changed. “We were really busy with the Carnival and the international student unions’ conference, so I needed them to make [For a Better Egypt] a couple days earlier or later,” said Yussr.
“I think people just want to be able to say that the SU didn’t go to the conference,” he added.
Conference participants were divided into smaller groups of 10 to discuss Egypt’s problems, categorized under education, media, science and art, citizen behaviour, bureaucracy and overpopulation. Each group brainstormed a list of causes and solutions for each problem, and, after a general vote agreeing that education required the most urgent attention, all 80 students gathered to discuss how to tackle it.
“The final brainstorming was effective, but we need to sit down in a smaller committee with representatives from each university to talk about more practical actions that can be [taken] by us as students,” said Korayem.
Korayem, who stood up several times during the conference to ask attendees not to say things such as “that can never be done,” explained that the initial focus would be to enhance the teaching capabilities of teachers. Taking one public school at a time, they could give teachers intensive classes while training students in subjects like information technology and critical thinking, which are not part of the public school curricula.
The conference also gave students a change to explore student politics at universities other than their own. “We are not allowed to have a student union because elections are not allowed,” said Saleh Massoud, a fourth year communications engineering student at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport.
Massoud added that while $2 was taken from the fees of every student and reserved for a student paper, the paper has never been published at the academy because it could not acquire the necessary approval for its content from the main office of the academy in Alexandria.
There is no student union in Misr International University (MIU) either, but for different reasons. “We do not need representation before the administration because the administration gives us what we want,” said Maggy Ghaleb, a student at MIU. Ghaleb explained that if a student presented a grievance against a professor to the administration, the professor would be removed immediately.
Despite the sharing of experiences and discussion of Egypt’s problems, many participants feel that the conference will not be able to show results in its first year.
“We still need to spread an attitude of working with others here at AUC,” said Mohamed El Shafie, the only AUC student, other than Caravan staff, who attended the conference.
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