Chocolate Mints In a Jar

I think the Egyptian Educational system is crap.  Excuse my French but it really is.  I was lucky enought not to be exposed to it except for 3 years in middle school.  My first years of education were spent in the American system, followed by the British system then those 3 horrible years, then IGCSE then finally I ended off in a private University.  So I consider myself very lucky.  However, I think it needs a serious overhaul and quickly.

1. Home Economics should make a comeback. Home economics should probably be the most important subject taught in today’s schools.  In the current state of the economy the ability to cook, sew and handle finances should not be taken lightly.  Having the knowledge of how to prepare healthy, cheap and nutritious meals should be something every student learns at school.  Learning how to budget should not be taught to Business majors, but to elementary school students, it is a skill that is vital to everyone.  If you think I am joking, read this article.
2. Universities should limit the number of students they are accepting. 342,902 students graduated in 2002 ( Source World Bank EdStats Query).  Do we need all of those doctors, engineers, nurses, etc? How many graduates do we really need? No statistics are really available but by judging the percentage of unemployment in 2001 for University graduates was 14% (Source Employment and Unemployment in Egypt: Conventional Problems, Unconventional Remedies )  which means that the demand is less than the supply.  The exact market demands should be studied with 5 year projections and should also be aligned with the governments plan for reform as well.
3. Universities should not be free. Although I do believe that education should be free abd available to everyone but that should stop at the secondary level.  I am not being cruel or mean to people who are poor or who do not have the financial means to go to college not go.  On the contrary I think the gifted should be offered scholarships that would cover their full tuition.  The problem is in the scientific colleges, that need immense fundings to keep labs, classes and professors up to date, the cost is just too high for the government to be taking all of the responsibility.  Projects should also be set up so that big corporations help in the funding and sponsorship of university programs.
4. Polytechnic institutes should be updated and students should be more encouraged to join. There is a high demand in fields like nursing which are not being met.  Students should be encouraged to enter these fields so that instead of holding a degree to which they can not get a job with, they can have a degree that is useful.
5. Majorly increase the salaries of our teachers and professors. If we no longer offer university for free, we can actually pay our professors more and thus be able to get more from them.
6. Give it some time. We need at least a full generation before we see any kind of significant improvement so if we start change now, we need to be patient for the next decade or two at least.  Patience is a virtue.

That about sums it up, maybe my ideas are not very smart or maybe just one or two changes could cause some major improvement.  Please let me know what you think.