ROLE OF EDUCATION IN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN EGYPT

This research will try to consider and answer these questions in terms of education. Egypt has made great efforts to reform the education system in order to develop human capitals in the industrialized era. However, it has been agreed among scholars that the education has not made a great contribution to the economic development in general and to the industrialization in specific. This paper assumes that education is the basis of political, economic and social development. The main hypothesis of the paper, however, is that various factors mainly such as education reform from above and existing dual system, religious vs. secular, have been obstacles in the development of education and consequently its contribution to the economic, political, and social progress. In order to find evidence of this hypothesis, the paper will rely on a historical analysis. Examining various written materials related to Egypt's education, this paper will be divided into two main two sections: the first section will explore, in general, the role of education in development; the second section will be devoted to analyzing the history and problems of education in Egypt, and will suggest how normative role of education can be applied to the Egyptian case of development.