Education in Egypt: Improvements in Attainment, Problems with Quality and Inequality

This paper provides a profile of education in Egypt using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey of 2012 and its predecessors. Both trends over time and differences by background characteristics for various education indicators are examined. Progress has been made in terms of school attendance, educational attainment and similar aspects such as dropout. However, school quality needs to be substantially improved. Attendance of private schools and universities as well as the frequent reliance on private tutoring signal that the quality of public schools is low. The evidence in this paper also points to inequality in education opportunities and outcomes. Socioeconomic background, specifically wealth and parental education, strongly affect the different aspects of education in Egypt.