Expensive classrooms, poor learning: The imperatives of reforming school construction in Egypt

Egyptian schools suffer from systematic deficiencies that affect student learning, attendance, health, and dignity. These include a discrepancy between needs and actual construction projects, very poor maintenance, and massive school shortages leading to high density, overcrowding, and multiple-shift schools. Egypt’s average classroom density of 47.5 students/classroom in the primary stage is higher than the average in countries such as India and China. More than 75% of Egyptian students are in classrooms that have over 40 students. Such high classroom densities have a strongly negative impact on learning, especially at the critical primary stage. Not only does Egypt’s high average classroom density obscure large variations across the country, it also hides the problem of multiple-shift schools, where more than one school population uses the same facilities. Only one third of Egyptian public school students attend single-shift schools: the remaining 12.7 million children (of whom 7 million are in the primary stage) have to cope with overcrowded classrooms. They also have a smaller window of learning time and are often deprived of classes considered less essential like arts, music, and physical education. These conditions directly contribute to poor learning and student dropout, as well as seriously undermining equality within the system. These inadequate learning conditions, compounded by sanitary and maintenance problems, disproportionately affect those students who are already disadvantaged. Official estimates point to the need to construct 250,000 new classrooms at a cost of 130 billion Egyptian pounds (EGP) ($7.3 billion).1 This massive construction campaign must be guided by a restructuring of Egypt’s current school construction system under new parameters that will ensure better quality, lower costs, and less resource waste. School shortages and high construction costs are driven by the way in which the system is designed and managed; restrictive and unnecessary requirements increase construction costs while undermining the allocation of land for schools. Highly centralized procurement procedures contribute to high costs, resource waste, and allegations of corruption plague almost every step of the school construction process. Whereas some aspects of school construction in Egypt may be unique, many of the problems associated with the system are shared by other countries. Drawing on both the local context and relevant international data, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of this under-researched topic, suggests alternative indicators that should be used to better enhance school construction efforts, and puts forward six key policy recommendations for reforming school construction. The recommendations are all part of a necessary restructuring of the regime of school construction and the main entity responsible for it, the General Authority for Educational Buildings (GAEB)

The lived social contract in schools: From protection to the production of hegemony

This article proposes a framework for studying the social contract along the four parameters (4Ps) of protection, provision, participation and the production of hegemony. To appreciate the differentiated experience of how these parameters are lived, this framework is applied to schools as arenas that uniquely capture the dynamics of power and legitimacy in society. The education sector reflects broader transformations in the state bureaucracy, in social policy and in the lived experience of key elements of the social contract from the rule of law and gendered violence to formal and informal privatization, everyday forms of participation and the narratives and practices around nationalism and neoliberalism that legitimize these changes. Applying this approach to the case study of Egypt updates earlier propositions about an Arab social contract and nuances the notion of a tradeoff between provision and participation rights in understanding regime legitimacy. It underlines the critical changes to protection and legitimation over the past decades and the implications of the outsourcing of various elements of the social contract to market, charitable and religious forces. Drawing on rare research inside schools catering to different social classes before and after the 2011 uprising, the article describes how their realities reflect the transformations of lived citizenship in this historical juncture. Egyptian schools reveal a ‘lived social contract’ that is underpinned by selective retraction of protection, a collapse of provision, impoverishment and Islamization of participation and a resulting disengagement from the production of hegemony

Violence, class and masculinity in Egypt: Gendered punishment in Cairene schools

Gendered violence in schools remains understudied and poorly integrated in understandings of the changing pressures facing men and women in neoliberal, securitized and precarious global contexts. This paper draws on the findings of extensive research with young men and women in Egyptian schools catering to different social classes before and after the 2011 uprising. It shows how the rise in violent punishment in Egyptian public schools reflects modes of lived citizenship, where state-sanctioned violence is intimately structured into the everyday experience of the majority of less fortunate youth and in particular young males. It explains how harsh and humiliating punishment in schools is linked to the formal and informal privatization of education, the impoverishment of teachers and the disinvestment of the state in social services. As such, it is not restricted to a minority of marginalized schools as in other contexts. The paper underlines how sexual harassment, as a critical component of the everyday lived experience of female students, cannot be understood in separation from the different forms of violence circulating in schools. It suggests that change in these practices can be catalyzed by major political events like the 2011 uprising and the sense of empowerment and entitlement it generated among young people in particular

Synthesis and Molluscicidal Activity of Some Newly Substituted Chromene and Pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole Derivatives

The arylidene derivatives 3a-f react with 1,3-cyclohexanedioneand dimedone 4a,b to afford the 4-(2- or 3-pyridyl) or 4-pipronyl-chromene derivatives 6a-l. The arylidene derivatives 3a-c react with the pyrazolone derivatives 7a,b to afford the pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole derivatives 9af.The molluscicidal activity of the synthesized compounds towards Biomphalaria alexandrina snails, the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni, was investigated and most of them showed weak to moderate activity.

Maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity associated with tuberculosis during pregnancy and the postpartum period: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Ammalife and Elly Appeal (Barts Charity), Charities with a focus on maternal health research in developing countries funded SS. The Charities had no influence on the development, conduct or reporting of this work

Evaluation of a low-cost inkjet printed slot antenna for energy harvesting applications

A circularly polarized patch antenna fabricated using commercially available, low-cost, printers is described. Two additive processes are combined for the fabrication: stereolithography (SLA) and inkjet printing of silver inks. A widely available SLA 3D printer is employed to fabricate the substrate of the antenna. Inkjet printing is used to deposit the metallic layers of the radiating element on the substrate. The two machines employed are very low-cost in comparison to those used in previously reported work. Good adhesion of the metallic patterns to the substrates is observed. Furthermore, the resistance of the added metallic patch is relatively low. The aim is to demonstrate the use of alternative, inexpensive machines, for the prototyping and manufacturing of antennas on 3D printed substrates. In this work, the antenna operates at the 1.575GHz GPS frequency band. Finite-difference-time-domain simulations compare well with the practical experiments

Associative learning and memory retention of nectar yeast volatiles in a generalist parasitoid

Understanding how animals learn is crucial to interpreting animal behaviour. Flower-visiting insects, such as bees and parasitoids, are excellent animal models to study visual and olfactory learning, including memory phenomena. The diversity of resources flower-visiting insects exploit predisposes them to learn and remember the colours, shapes and odours associated with rewarding experiences (e.g. flowers), allowing them to focus on the most rewarding resources. Recent research has shown that nectar-living microbes release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute to overall flower scent. Nevertheless, little is known about the extent to which nectar microbiota mediate insect learning of floral preferences. In this study, we investigated whether VOCs produced by nectar microbes serve as a learning cue to parasitoids and how long any developed preference is maintained. Experiments were performed using the generalist aphid parasitoid Aphidius ervi and three nectar yeasts, including the nectar specialist Metschnikowia reukaufii and the generalist species Hanseniaspora uvarum and Sporobolomyces roseus. Results showed that naïve parasitoids had an innate preference for nectar fermented by the nectar specialist M. reukaufii, but not by the other two yeasts which had either a neutral (H. uvarum) or deterrent (S. roseus) effect. When parasitoids were conditioned with yeast-fermented nectar, they were strongly attracted to their odours 2 and 24h after conditioning, but not after 48h. Furthermore, when parasitoids were conditioned to one yeast-fermented nectar, they also showed increased attraction to other yeast-fermented nectars. This generalization suggests that their learning ability may have broader ecological consequences. However, this generalized response to other yeast VOCs lasted for only 2h. We conclude that parasitoids show conditioned responses to the scent of yeast-fermented nectar, and yeasts, therefore, may play an important but understudied role in shaping their foraging behaviour

Evaluation of health-related quality of life and muscular strength in children with beta thalassemia major

Background: Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that requires repeated blood transfusions and chelation regimes. This may lead to restrictions in physical activities, social participation as well as decreased muscle strength.Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL), muscular strength and pain in children with β-thalassemia major.Patients and method: One hundred and twenty children (60 with β-thalassemia major and 60 age-matched healthy) were participated in a cross-sectional study from both sexes (57 girls and 63 boys) with ages ranging from two to twelve years. HRQoL (physical, emotional, social and school functioning), muscular strength and pain were evaluated for all children by using the pediatric quality of life inventoryTM (PedsQLTM) 4.0 generic core scale, hand-held dynamometer and visual analogue scale (VAS) respectively.Results: Children with β-thalassemia major showed a significant decrease in all domains of health-related quality of life and handgrip strength with a significant increase in VAS score (p ≤ 0.0001).Conclusions: The study concluded that thalassemia as a chronic disease has a negative impact on HRQoL and muscle strength of children in different age group.Keywords: Beta thalassemia, Quality of life, Handgrip strength, childre

Identification and application of bacterial volatiles to attract a generalist aphid parasitoid from laboratory to greenhouse assays

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown that microorganisms emit volatile compounds that affect insect behaviour. However, it remains largely unclear whether microbes can be exploited as a source of attractants to improve biological control of insect pests. In this study, we used a combination of coupled gas chromatography electroantennography (GC-EAG) and Y-tube olfactometer bioassays to identify attractive compounds in the volatile extracts of three bacterial strains that are associated with the habitat of the generalist aphid parasitoid Aphidius colemani, and to create mixtures of synthetic compounds to find attractive blends for A. colemani. Subsequently, the most promising blend was evaluated in two-choice cage experiments under greenhouse conditions. RESULTS: GC-EAG analysis revealed 20 compounds that were linked to behaviourally attractive bacterial strains. A mixture of two EAG-active compounds, styrene and benzaldehyde applied at a respective dose of 1 μg and 10 ng, was more attractive than the single compounds or the culture medium of the bacteria in Y-tube olfactometer bioassays. Application of this synthetic mixture under greenhouse conditions resulted in significant attraction of the parasitoids, and outperformed application of the bacterial culture medium. CONCLUSION: Compounds isolated from bacterial blends were capable of attracting parasitoids both in laboratory and greenhouse assays, indicating that microbial culture are an effective source of insect attractants. This opens new opportunities to attract and retain natural enemies of pest species and to enhance biological pest control

Isotherm and Thermodynamic Studies of the Biosorption of Humic Acid from Aqueous Solution by Pine Sawdust based Activated Charcoal

203-209Activated charcoal was prepared from pine tree sawdust by chemical activation by means of phosphoric acid (PSDP) that was used for Humic acid bio sorption from aqueous medium. The influence of humic acid initial concentration, sorbent mass, and solution temperature on sorption process was investigated. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used to analyze the equilibrium sorption data. The maximum adsorption capacities of PSDP obtained from Langmuir were 170.9, 182.1 and 209.6 mg/g at 25°C, 45°C and 65°C, respectively. Humic acid adsorption onto PSDP was spontaneous, favorable at higher temperature and endothermic in nature. Activated charcoal from pine tree sawdust proves to have high capacity adsorptive to natural organic compound (humic acid)