President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Tuesday urged outlining a strategy for upgrading education, while taking challenges into consideration.

The remark was made during his participation in the first session of the first National Youth Conference, that kicked off here earlier in the day.

The session is allocated for discussing a new vision for education.

The president noted that there are several challenges facing Egypt in the health care, education and slums sectors.

The State's financial resources are limited, he said, adding that the revolution broke out in Egypt after these challenges exacerbated.

"We seek to handle these problems in an unconventional way", said the president, underlining the necessity of human capacity building.

The president pointed out that, during his visits abroad, he was acquainted with the other countries' experiments in upgrading education and found out that these countries have placed education as first priority.

He wondered if the Egyptians would bear channeling all resources to education; disregarding all other development sectors. 
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said at the first session of the conference that any idea that is floated at the session should be practical and feasible.

He added that some countries that managed to upgrade their educational system were quite backward. But when they placed education on top of their priorities, things have changed, said the president.

One country made education free until the preparatory level while the cost of other advanced levels are shouldered by the family. This country, said the president, managed to attain economic and technological progress.

Other countries adopted different methods for upgrading their educational system, he added.

"I spent three hours in a preliminary school in a country and found out how they teach pupils good manners and how to be leaders", added the president.

The president added that when he watches TV in Egypt, he discovers that some programs are misleading the public regarding the magnitude of challenges facing the country. 
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said at the first session of the conference that population growth is one of the most important challenges that hamper achieving distinguished education in Egypt.

The president noted that he is responsible for protecting Egypt and preventing its downfall. He underlined the necessity of having good education, good health care and job opportunities.

He further underlined the necessity of ending the problem of slums to provide decent life for their residents.

He noted that the issue is much bigger than being handled in a session. It needs a massive societal dialogue where experts discuss all challenges along with the goals that would be achieved.

The president said the problem will not be solved through conventional methods. It requires unconventional approaches to achieve the hopes of the Egyptians.

President Sisi said the magnitude of challenges in Egypt is not confined to education. He wondered what for the Egyptians launched two revolutions. This means that "Our state of affairs became so bad".

The president asserted the necessity of starting handling the root causes of these bad conditions. 
Renowned Egyptian scientist Farouk el Baz addressed the session. 

He expressed hope to see the Egyptian young people in their best shape in terms of science and knowledge not only education.

He voiced confidence that the Egyptian young people can represent their country at any event.

Egypt has young people who enjoy good minds and who can learn easily, he said, highlighting the necessity of good planning and hard work to achieve the hoped-for goals.
Speaking also at the first session of the conference was Heba al Hawwary from the Presidential Leadership Program.

She expounded her vision on upgrading education in Egypt. She underlined on this score the problem of insufficient classes if compared to the numbers of students.

She also underscored the importance of applying modern technology in the educational process and developing the spirit of collective action among students along with promoting self-education skills.

Also, Hagar al Tunsy from the Presidential Leadership Program explained her vision for upgrading education.

She said that technology became part of the daily life and that education should not remain isolated from the practical life.

She also highlighted the important role of social media which became part of the daily life.

Social media like Skype could be used for exchanging expertise and information, she added.

Source: MENA