The Egyptian Ministry of Education released a new and shocking Education Act that details teachers' salaries. The ministry claims it worked alongside multiple education experts and teachers to discuss appropriate wages, bonuses and allowances provided to educators in the public schools sector.
The new Education Act dictates that for the first 7 years in the field, teachers will receive a salary of 1,000 (approximately $125) Egyptian pounds along with a 50 pound annual bonus and teachers with a couple of years of experience will receive 1,350 pounds as well as an annual bonus of 50.
Even more concerning are the salaries of people who have a higher expertise in the educational field. Teachers with a few years of experience will receive a salary of 1,800 and a bonus of 50 and department heads will receive a salary of 2,100 along with a whopping 50 as an annual bonus.
With Egypt's economic downfall and incredibly high prices of consumer goods, this move may prove to be disastrous as it leaves a wide window of opportunity to further corrupt the educational system in Egypt.
For starting teachers, this is lower than the minimum wage that was announced by the government in 2014 . At the time, workers protested that the 1,200 minimum was inadequate considering the rapid inflation Egypt has experienced since the revolution.