{"id":17177,"date":"2025-11-28T09:27:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T07:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17177"},"modified":"2026-10-07T21:03:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:03:43","slug":"zewail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/zewail\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahmed Zewail\u2019s School Annex: Parents Pay for Classrooms, Then Fight for Enrolment"},"content":{"rendered":"

For almost four years, Sami Awad\u2019s family has struggled with a school placement far from home. His son, now in the second year of primary school, was assigned to the First Tourist Village Official Language School in the 6 October education district, 28 kilometres from the family\u2019s home on Tersa Street in al-Haram, when he entered kindergarten. The journey disrupted attendance and imposed substantial transport costs.<\/p>\n

Other parents in al-Haram, Faisal, Dokki and Agouza in Giza describe similar difficulties. Their young children were placed in education districts including Atfih, al-Saff, 6 October and Sheikh Zayed. After failing to transfer their children through the Education Ministry\u2019s online portal, families living within the Omraniya education district sought another solution.<\/p>\n

Awad says parents contributed EGP 45,000 for the second primary grade alone towards refurbishing an annex of Ahmed Zewail School in Omraniya. He puts the wider contributions at around EGP 900,000. Their aim was to provide classrooms closer to home, reducing both transport expenses and the risks of long journeys. But after the renovations and the start of the new school year, their children\u2019s administrative status remained unresolved.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe annex has still not been approved by the Omraniya education administration and the Education Ministry, and our children\u2019s files have not been transferred,\u201d Awad tells Zawia3. \u201cThey have attended since the beginning of October, but their attendance is not recognised legally. The attendance registers, assessment results and monthly examination results have not been submitted to the education administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He says the families have spent four years trying to secure places near their homes. The latest explanation, he adds, is that the annex cannot formally accommodate the pupils and that they will be moved once new schools open. \u201cWe do not know what will happen to our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marina Francis, whose son is also in the second primary grade, lives in al-Haram but was assigned a school in 6 October. For years she accompanied him there and returned at midday to collect him. Other families relied on private school buses costing more than EGP 1,000 per child each month. She says the distance left children exhausted and unable to keep up consistently with their lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren would leave home at six in the morning and return after four in the afternoon,\u201d she tells Zawia3. \u201cOne school bus carrying pupils overturned on the road, which made parents even more worried about their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis says parents submitted formal requests and transfer documents, prepared the required lists and contributed to equipping the annex. Yet they received no clear resolution. Although the children had begun school assessments in the new building, she says they were being marked absent in their original districts because their records had not been formally transferred. She calls the situation unacceptable: children should not bear the consequences of an administrative dispute.<\/p>\n

She urges the ministry to regularise their enrolment. \u201cParents only want their children\u2019s right to an education close to home, in a safe and stable environment, after all the effort and money they have invested.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A refurbished building, unresolved enrolment<\/h2>\n

Mohamed Samir\u2019s daughter was assigned a school in Atfih, which he puts at 105.8 kilometres from their home in Omraniya, in the al-Haram area. The journey takes more than an hour and a half by car. For more than a year, he tried to transfer his daughter, now in the first primary grade, through requests to the Omraniya administration and Giza\u2019s education directorate, without success.<\/p>\n

Parents approached MP Ehab Mansour. According to Samir, Mansour met Omraniya education director Souad Mohamed and other officials, and they agreed to use an abandoned building belonging to al-Siddiq School, behind Ahmed Zewail Language School. Parents would fully equip it at their own expense as a community contribution. Samir says the arrangement followed a visit by the director and the MP.<\/p>\n

He says families collected EGP 1,000 per household from more than 1,000 participants. They fitted metal fences, wooden doors, plumbing, electricity, paint and classroom fans, and then handed over the building to the director and a committee of officials. His account of participants and payments differs from Awad\u2019s estimate of the overall sum; Zawia3 does not treat these testimonies as a single independently audited total.<\/p>\n

At the start of the 2025\u201326 school year, Samir says the administration initially refused to admit children to the renovated annex. Parents were then asked to obtain four transfer forms from the original education districts. They did so, paid school fees and received textbooks, but, he says, officials subsequently refused to sign or stamp the transfer papers and retained them for review.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSince the beginning of October, our children have been studying in an annex of Ahmed Zewail School without formal proof of enrolment,\u201d Samir says. \u201cThey remain registered in their original districts, including Atfih, al-Saff and 6 October. The administration told us they are only guests and that their files will not be transferred officially.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He believes some education departments still think the building has not been renovated and is not in use. In fact, he says, pupils attend daily and sit examinations and assessments, but their attendance and results are not forwarded because the annex is not formally recognised.<\/p>\n

Concerned that their children could lose the school year, parents submitted a collective complaint to the Cabinet, numbered 10889325. Samir says they had received no response by the time of the original report. He calls for an investigation into what he describes as official failings, recognition of the annex within Omraniya\u2019s schools and formal registration of the pupils.<\/p>\n

Zawia3 obtained copies of invoices relating to parents\u2019 contributions to maintenance and renovations, photographs documenting the work, and images of Souad Mohamed visiting the site with Mansour before the renovations began. When contacted by telephone about the parents\u2019 complaints, Mohamed ended the call without answering and subsequently blocked further calls from the reporter.<\/p>\n

\"Arabic
Community-contribution register obtained by Zawia3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another
Another page of the contribution records.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Handwritten
An itemised metalwork record among the documents obtained by Zawia3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a post on his official Facebook page dated 27 September 2025<\/a>, Mansour had announced a meeting with Mohamed on local education issues. He said work on the Ahmed Zewail annex had been completed and pupils would be accommodated in successive groups from that week.<\/p>\n

Asked about the subsequent complaints, Mansour told Zawia3 that he had not received official information about the latest enrolment problems. His earlier intervention, he said, aimed to provide suitable classrooms for pupils placed far from their homes and to address crowding and travel distances.<\/p>\n

He said he had not known of the new administrative difficulties and would ask Giza\u2019s education directorate why registration had not been completed despite classes taking place in the building. He pledged to follow up until a solution protected the rights of children and parents.<\/p>\n

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Officials dispute the parents\u2019 account<\/h2>\n

Giza education director Saeed Attia offered a different explanation. In a telephone interview, he described the building as a temporary annex intended to spare pupils long journeys until a new school was received and assigned an official ministry identification code, allowing the children to be transferred legally.<\/p>\n

Attia denied that parents had financed the building\u2019s refurbishment. \u201cThat is not true. The school administration did not receive any money from parents and has no connection with the claims that it was equipped at the local community\u2019s expense,\u201d he said. His denial conflicts with the parents\u2019 testimonies and the invoices and photographs obtained by Zawia3.<\/p>\n

He also disputed the claim that attendance was not recognised. \u201cEducation is proceeding regularly in the annex. Pupils\u2019 attendance is recorded, and their assessments and periodic results are sent to their original school. Attendance during the school year is officially counted for all registered pupils.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attia said a new school with 80 classrooms was being received and was expected to help resolve the shortage within Omraniya. Other educational projects were also under construction in Giza, he added.<\/p>\n

In an earlier interview with Zawia3<\/a>, he explained that priority for official language school kindergarten places was determined by age. Children just short of their sixth birthday were placed first in schools near home, followed progressively by younger applicants.<\/p>\n

He said 10,000 children had been placed in 85 Giza schools within their residential catchment areas, while another 8,000 initially lacked places the previous year. When parents requested admission anywhere rather than losing the school year, he said those children were accommodated in schools with vacancies in districts such as al-Saff and Atfih, avoiding increased crowding in language schools nearer their homes.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, Giza\u2019s education directorate issued instructions to accommodate remaining kindergarten applicants aged down to five. The directive referred to district figures showing children who had not yet received official placements.<\/p>\n

It assigned applicants from Abu al-Nomros, al-Badrashin and al-Hawamdiya to Salah Salem Basic Education School and Martyr Mohamed Abdel-Hafiz Primary School in al-Ayyat; Omraniya applicants to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and Amr ibn al-As primary schools in al-Saff; and al-Haram applicants to Atfih Mixed Primary School. Dokki applicants were directed to Kafr Ammar Primary School in al-Ayyat, Agouza applicants to Salah Salem there, and North Giza applicants to the annex of Martyr Mohamed Abdel-Hafiz Primary School in the same district.<\/p>\n

\"Giza
The directive lists original education districts and the schools assigned to accommodate their remaining kindergarten applicants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The directorate said these arrangements aimed to reduce crowding and provide access for all children, with district administrations monitoring implementation and classes in annexes.<\/p>\n

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Construction and school operation: separate responsibilities<\/h2>\n

Major General and engineer Yousri al-Deeb, head of the General Authority for Educational Buildings, said the authority was implementing a plan to address crowded classrooms and multiple school shifts, under Education Minister Mohamed Abdel-Latif\u2019s instructions. He described ending evening shifts and crowding in primary schools from the following academic year as a target, rather than a result already achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral new public and official language schools have entered service this year, while tendering and construction are continuing for others that will open in the coming months,\u201d he told Zawia3.<\/p>\n

Al-Deeb said the authority does not run schools or manage annexes. Its responsibilities cover construction, expansion and equipment; education directorates determine operation and pupil allocation.<\/p>\n

He argued that converting part of an Arabic-medium public school into an annex of an official language school was administratively problematic. \u201cYou cannot take part of a public school building and turn it into a language school, because that creates structural and administrative problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He cited a distance of 500\u2013800 metres between children\u2019s homes and schools as a placement criterion. This is his account of the standard; the report does not establish that the same limit is legally enforceable for every school type or placement. He said responsibility for departures from placement criteria lay with the administrations overseeing school operation.<\/p>\n

Al-Deeb said the ministry was seeking to provide schools in underserved areas and expected an improvement in pupil distribution and classroom crowding the following year.<\/p>\n

Published accounts cited in the original Arabic report describe eight Giza schools opening for 2019\u201320 at a total cost of EGP 48.88 million. Ahead of 2023\u201324, reports described 11 new schools costing EGP 222.6 million and containing 367 classrooms, alongside expansions at nine schools costing EGP 65 million and adding 207 classrooms. These are historical project figures, not a count of places available at the Ahmed Zewail annex.<\/p>\n

Ahead of 2025\u201326, the ministry announced openings of 14 schools with 539 classrooms in Cairo and 43 schools in Alexandria. It also announced the minister\u2019s visits to three new schools in Giza. Other announcements referred to 22 new Giza schools and 619 classrooms, while a separate statement attributed to Attia referred to 35 schools entering service. The figures describe different announcements and scopes; they should not be added together as one verified total.<\/p>\n

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More than a shortage of buildings<\/h2>\n

Education specialist Kamal Moghith, a member of the National Centre for Educational Research, believes the Ahmed Zewail annex dispute reflects problems in education management, including shortages of schools and classrooms and a lack of clear rules for community contributions.<\/p>\n

He says the case shows poor coordination between parents and the ministry. In his view, an educational annex should not be established or receive pupils without written, stamped ministry approval. \u201cDespite their good intentions, the parents became victims of poor organisation,\u201d he tells Zawia3. Equipping a building without official documentation, he argues, leaves it closer in administrative status to a private tutoring centre than a recognised school. This is his assessment of the dispute, which education officials contest.<\/p>\n

Moghith links the wider problem to inadequate public spending and a gradual transfer of educational costs to families. He cites earlier presidential remarks about free education as part of his criticism of government policy, rather than evidence that the constitutional right to free public education has formally been abolished.<\/p>\n

He says funding shortages contribute to staff shortages, deteriorating infrastructure and demands for compulsory financial contributions. Some school administrators and teachers, he says, ask parents for EGP 200\u2013500 towards cleaning, maintenance or workers\u2019 wages.<\/p>\n

Building more schools alone will not solve the crisis, he argues. Education requires qualified teachers, suitable curricula, a safe environment, fair examinations and varied activities. He describes it as a complex system that needs coordinated reform rather than temporary solutions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTrying to solve the education crisis only by building schools is like treating a patient by moving them into a clean room without giving them medicine,\u201d Moghith says. \u201cA lasting solution begins with higher education allocations in the state budget, enabling investment in infrastructure, recruitment of teachers and improvement of educational quality.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Ahmed Zewail annex leaves parents and officials offering sharply different accounts of the same classrooms. Families fear that everyday attendance will not protect their children\u2019s school year; the directorate says attendance and assessments are recognised through the original schools. Resolving that discrepancy requires a clear, documented administrative arrangement that families can verify.<\/p>\n

For the children, the central issue remains straightforward: a safe school close to home, with secure enrolment and an education that does not depend on parents navigating competing official explanations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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