Egypt's Children and Education Minister See Improved Schools
MINYA GOVERNORATE, Egypt -- The children wore an air of excitement the day the Minister of Education came to open a new project in El Baraka village elementary school.
It was not even a school day but the children arrived to greet the minister and to show off their new computers, library and clean corridors, adorned with posters and artwork. U.S. contracts paid for many of the improvements and for training of teachers and the librarian so that children could learn in a modern way - not just the old rote memorization of facts used in previous decades.
"The education is good at the school, our children know how to read and they are polite," said Amal Hegazy, 27, whose children aged 9 and 6 attend the El Baraka school.
"My husband is a farmer. He attends the parents association," she added as she stood in one of the town's streets, surrounded by her neighbors and their children.
USAID has promoted the creation of parents associations to involve the community in education and to encourage parents to send children to school.
"We know that the United States provided the computers and the school because the United States wants to help us," said Hegazy.
"We are grateful for it. My child wants to be a doctor."
During a tour of El Baraka and other village schools in June, 2006, Egypt's Minister of Education Yousry El Gamal said at a meeting in the Minya Governorate capital: "I believe that there is no way we can reform education without the support of the community and civil society."
"No real development in any country is possible without the focus on education - especially primary education from 6 to 18 years of age." He noted that he too had benefited from USAID training in seven governorates. That was before he ascended to minister in charge of 16 million Egyptian children in the nation's public schools.
In his speech, the minister said that to reach a goal of education for all, in a time when the population increases by 2 percent each year, some 4,000 new schools must be built nationwide - adding to the 39,000 already in use. Illiteracy remains at 28 percent.
In 
Minya Governorate about four hours drive south of Cairo along the verdant Nile Valley, USAID has funded construction of 34 new schools since 2000, about 3 percent of the area's schools. U.S. programs also trained 3,000 teachers and installed dozens of small libraries with Arabic publications inside many schools.
"I have learned to use the computers and can use [Microsoft] PowerPoint, Word and Paintbrush - but we don't have internet yet," said Riham Ahmed, 11, a fifth grade student at El Baraka Elementary School.
"I like studying Arabic, English and math - I want to get a Ph.D," said the girl, whose parents are both teachers.