Laura Bush and Suzanne Mubarak join Forces as Egyptian Education Initiative goes International

Contact: Fon Mathuros, Communications Department,
World Economic Forum, E-mail: fmathuro@weforum.org,
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First Ladies Laura Bush and Suzanne Mubarak celebrate Egyptian Education Initiative (high resolution photo available) Education Initiative has reached nearly 200,000 people in two years 380 million dollars already invested  initiative looking to work in other countries

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 18 May 2008 - US First Lady Laura Bush joined forces with her Egyptian counterpart, Suzanne Mubarak, at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East to celebrate the Egyptian Education Initiative (EEI). The project which was launched at the meeting two years ago is now set to go international. Under the umbrella of the Global Education Initiative (GEI), the Egyptian Education Initiative will cross national boundaries to act as a role model and extend its support on educational reform in other developing countries, such as Rwanda which has shown interest in the Egyptian model;

"The EEI's third year will be dedicated to impact assessment and exploring means of making the program sustainable." said Hoda Baraka, Director, Egyptian Education Initiative (EEI) and First Deputy to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt.

Over the past 24 months, more than US$ 80 million has been invested in professional development and training of students, developing curricula, certification, content digitization, infrastructure deployment, and hardware and software as part of the EEI program activities.

The EEI was able to accelerate the rhythm of implementation and complete most activities. In schools and universities nationwide, 40,000 PCs have been deployed, more than 185,000 trainings have been delivered, and 2,000 schools, 17 universities and 400 centres were impacted by the EEI. The initiative with its massive scale has proven that multistakeholder partnerships can be effective where mutual concern is shared by all parties.

"Through impressive sponsors and a powerful approach to public and private partnership, the EEI has already impacted almost 185,000 stakeholders across Egypt’s education community; a truly wonderful accomplishment in such a short period," said Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International, Microsoft Corporation, France.

"The Egypt Education Initiative has accomplished a critical milestone toward equipping students with the 21st century skills that will enable them to participate in this global economy. Building on this success, Cisco looks forward to continued collaboration," said Tae Yoo, Senior Vice-President, Cisco Corporate Affairs.

“Making quality education available to more students around the world has inspired Intel’s commitment to education for 40 years. Intel gets directly involved in policy, training teachers, offering free curricula, providing children a place to explore technology and encouraging young inventors,“ said William A. Swope, Vice-President and General Manager, Corporate Affairs Group, Intel Corporation.

The EEI is pleased to recognize among its partners: CA, Cisco, HP, IBM, Intel, Italian Corporation, Microsoft, Oracle, UNDP and USAID.

 
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