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Young people gathered around me, showing concern, and one of them said: We have read that the Supreme Council of Universities has taken a decision that the results of this year’s evaluation will be “successful or failing” only, and that universities will not take the electronic evaluation remotely!!???
I said: Why do you object?
Someone said: This means that the superior who uses technology and who reads and comprehends is equal to others who do not. This is a decision that uses the criterion of failure rather than the criterion of excellence.
His colleague said: There are universities and professors who worked hard to implement distance learning standards, and succeeded in that, and we will punish them because others failed, and we want to equate the successful institution with the failed institution!!!!
I said: A point of view must be taken into account.
An outstanding student said: What do you think, doctor, of what is happening?
I said: Technological development and the digitalization of education have made possible what was not available before. Virtual and distance education is in innovative frameworks, and it has become a basic need that must happen, and not just a side addition to traditional education. It remains that this trend needs controls that do not prevent its spread, but rather guarantee its quality and sustainability. So I agree with you on the digital principle. It was added that the decision of the Supreme Council of Universities may kill the independence of higher education institutions, put all universities in one basket, and a queue receives instructions without creativity or innovation.
However, in direct contact with the Minister of Higher Education, he explained to me that the apparent matter is not the truth, because every university council has the right to take its decision, which is to respect the university’s independence. In fact, every faculty has the right from its board of directors to take its teaching method and its evaluation method.
I insist, and the responsible minister agrees with me, that universities have the right to choose their teaching models, within a framework of quality review, and to choose responsibly the system of evaluating their students, within the framework of declared rules, without interference from other universities or from the state, which is the content of the truth of the decision. And we all agree that all should not be the same and a duplicate of some because it will mean that we have turned the universities into large schools that lack the standards of Magnacarta, which govern the framework of the independence of the educational institution, which we respect.
The graduate student said: Is this not the decision of the Supreme Council of Universities, which is the body responsible for the performance of universities?
I said: We have a return to this, for the Supreme Council of Universities does not impose on universities the rules of their academic management, and the voice of Cairo University in the Council is the same as the voice of any emerging university, for neither the Council was established for this purpose, nor is it a political democracy in favoring an opinion over the other within the Council.. As I said, we will return to that.
The first young man said: What does your experience say?!!
I said: My experience and wisdom say that in every adversity there is an opportunity.. It depends on who has the ability to extract opportunities from adversity. We have been facing the spread of the Covid-19 virus for weeks, and we know that one of the models of resistance is social distancing, which led to the closure of educational institutions and the stay of more than 22 million students in their homes, and the educational process almost stopped. , whose titles are found in the state, and the talk about distance education has gone too far with all its inputs as a temporary solution, and the value of the electronic assessment for students has emerged. their children, and forced a good number of professors and teachers to use technology to communicate with students and students, and some failed to do so. The ordeal stopped the educational system in Egypt, as if we were in a state of rebooting the entire education system, but it will return to work.. What is new is that the suspension taught us a lot, which could not have been realized except from the experience of stopping in the middle of the school year, which no one would have He does it without what happened.. We have to review ourselves, and not go back to doing the same thing again, in the same way, waiting for different results, or else we would be among the idiots. Active professors and teachers have recorded educational tapes within the curricula and shown them on YouTube. There are many educational platforms that students use on the Internet, and some universities and schools have made an institutional effort to communicate with their students, and many universities use distance learning platforms with relative success.. So we have to We are taking the opportunity at the level of universities, educational districts, and schools, in new initiatives to train on innovative learning methods. We have to take advantage of professors and teachers who have demonstrated the ability and energy to communicate with their students outside the walls of routine and traditional.. We have to encourage young people who have demonstrated the potential of building systems to transform curricula into three-dimensional material in impressive ways, and who have created programs for remote assessment, at a simple and available cost, and I have begun I reviewed a number of them, and I am proud of that.
The first student said: Can distance education solve the problems of overcrowding in classrooms in schools and in some colleges that are overcrowded with students, such as colleges of commerce?
I said: Of course, there are creative solutions, and we must look at the possibility of transforming educational institutions into a mixture of distance education and face-to-face education to reduce the density of classes and absorb new students. Of course, what I say here must respect the educational foundations and the importance of being present in the school and university community, but in a new way it may restore education to its luster and value in building knowledge and creating a normal personality.
As for higher education in particular, the theater is open, and this type of education has international standards, genius platforms, and successful evaluation methods. I agree with you that we must rise to our standards and work to reach them, and not rely on the failure of some and generalize it. I remind you that the vision that we presented is divided into five pillars that advance education, and are consistent with what may happen after the ordeal of “Corona”:
The first pillar: accessible education for all, of high quality, without discrimination.
Pillar Two: Existence of an Efficient, Fair and Competent Institutional Framework
It continues to manage and govern the education, research and development process at the central level, down to the decentralized level in the governorates, and up to the management of schools.
The third pillar: Technological and digital empowerment of the student, student, teacher and teaching staff in the school and university, and the development of teaching methods and methods, research and evaluation.
The fourth pillar: Building the integrated personality of the student and student in all its aspects to become a normal citizen, proud of himself, enlightened, creative, proud of his country and its history, passionate about building its future, capable of difference and capable of pluralism, knowing that this cannot be done without culture, art, music and sports.
The fifth pillar: The graduate should be proactive, have the ability to adapt to the changes around him, create new job opportunities, and be able to compete with his peers at the local, regional and global levels.
Perhaps the third pillar is clear in the application of foundations that allow us to offer distance education as an integrated partner in traditional formal education. Distance education, and new and technological assessment systems are no longer a luxury that we use when necessary, but rather it must be a foundation and a pillar. Perhaps the experience of the ordeal of stopping the education system as a result of the Corona epidemic crisis provides us with an unprecedented opportunity, and knowledge that was not available to the capabilities of the education system in the country.
The fourth pillar clearly demonstrates the need for school and university activity, which builds personality through sports, art and culture, and coexistence within an atmosphere that paves the way for respecting the freedoms and rights of individuals, builds leaders, qualifies for teamwork, accepts differences of opinion, and honors academic, cultural and sports competition locally and globally.
The excited young man said: Can we do that?
I said: I have watched, studied and analyzed different models in front of me in society, and my answer is yes, yes we can..Our youth is better than its leaders imagine, and our children are better than what our educational system thinks..and my belief and conviction stems from my experience and not theory..
