In numbers: How Egypt’s Sisi undermined the right to education in 10 years of rule

Human Rights Watch released a report on Monday stating that the Egyptian government's cuts to education spending are undermining the public's right to education. The report points out that the reduction in education funding could exacerbate the existing "crisis of poor education quality," including a severe shortage of trained teachers, inadequate teacher salaries, and dilapidated public school infrastructure, leading to the government's failure to guarantee that every child receives free primary and secondary education.

In 2024, the Egyptian parliament approved an education budget of 295 billion Egyptian pounds (approximately $6 billion), which is only 1.7% of Egypt's 17 trillion pound (approximately $380 billion) gross domestic product. Despite the Egyptian constitution of 2014 promising that the state's expenditure on education would not be less than 6% of the gross domestic product, the actual situation falls far short of this standard.

The report found that under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt's education spending has plummeted from 3.9% of GDP in the 2014/15 fiscal year to 1.7% in the 2024/25 fiscal year. The Human Rights Watch report also noted that Sisi has downplayed the urgency of increasing the education budget, claiming that other matters such as security and military needs are of higher priority.

Egypt's education spending is also far below international standards, which recommend allocating 4-6% of GDP to education. In 2024, the Egyptian Ministry of Education and Technical Education stated that Egypt is short of approximately 250,000 classrooms, with some schools forced to accommodate 200 students in one classroom. Official statements indicate that the teacher shortage has climbed to 469,000 in 2024.

The report expressed concern about Egypt's educational outcomes, with the World Bank estimating that nearly 70% of students in Egypt were in a state of "learning poverty" as of 2019. The report also pointed out that a quarter of adults are illiterate. "Insufficient investment in public education means that the Egyptian government is failing to fulfill its obligations, with many students receiving poor-quality education in overcrowded and underfunded schools," said Bassam Khawaja, deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.

Khawaja added that the crackdown on freedom of expression and the lack of fair elections have stifled dissent and prevented the Egyptian people from challenging the government's spending decisions. Sisi became president in 2014, a year after he overthrew his democratically elected predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, in a military coup. His rule has been criticized for overspending on large, multi-billion-dollar projects of questionable economic value, including a new administrative capital, which now houses his presidential palace and other government institutions.