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Rather slowly, the education system is improving. Whereas in the early 1990s nearly half of all children either did not even start basic education or failed to complete it, that proportion has now fallen below 15%, which suggests that Egypt could be reaching 90% literacy within a generation. In 2007 the government launched a five-year overhaul of basic education, including a sharp rise in teachers’ salaries, better school facilities and a reworked curriculum. Another initiative seeks to give all high schools broadband internet connections by 2012. Many state universities now have specialised and sometimes fee-paying faculties, often in collaboration with foreign institutions but even so the number of private colleges has risen rapidly. Private businesses, long absent from education, now sponsor scholarships and university chairs.
Egypt has, in effect, accepted that it runs a two-tier education system. It is skewed towards those who can afford to pay for the best private tutors or, better still, private schools, which are flourishing. Even in public universities, a startling 48% of students come from the richest fifth of society. Yet although the promise of a decent free education for all has clearly not been met, at least Egypt’s better university faculties are again producing top-notch graduates, and publishers and bookshops have seen a surge in sales in recent years.
Historic comparison offers some cause for optimism. Egyptians’ educational level now equals not only South Korea’s in 1960 but also Turkey’s in 1980 and much of western Europe’s at the end of the 19th century. In all those places the threshold of 75% literacy proved a starting point not just for faster economic growth and human development but for political transition too.

A. 어휘
proportion 비율. literacy 문자해득. launch 착수하다, 진수하다.
overhaul 개혁, 분해수리. reworked 개정된. initiative 제안, 創始(창시).
broadband 廣大域(광대역)의. specialised 전문화된.
faculties 교수진, 직원. collaboration 협동. institutions 학회, 기관.
two-tier education system 二重(이중)교육제도. tier 층, 줄, 段階(단계).
skew 기울다. flourish 번창하다. startling 놀라운. notch 級(급), 눈금.
graduates 졸업생. surge 큰 파도, 激動(격동).
optimism 낙관주의. threshold 경계, 문지방, 출발점, 시초.
transition 變移(변이), 번천.