Abstract

The quality of public school education in Egypt has been on a declining slope for years, facing many challenges such as poor quality, high dropout rates and a mismatch between the market needed skills and those of students. The purpose of this study is to explore whether blended learning is a viable solution to Egypt’s educational ailments, with improving equity as the focus. With no dominant literature trends on the subject or enough access to public education data, the chosen research method was to conduct in-depth interviews with national and international experts on blended learning. All interviewed experts believe that there is severe lack of equity in the system. They mentioned socioeconomic discrepancy, poorly designed policies and limiting customs and traditions as the biggest contributors to education inequity in the country. Despite being experts on blended learning, the experts have not shown blind trust in its ability to improve equity. They believe that the problems are “much bigger than to be solved by technology” alone, and emphasize several prerequisites for a successful policy: raison d'être, changing the “one size fits all” approach, political will, institutional readiness, and pedagogical development. The study concludes that blended learning has potential benefits, but also has potential risks that need to be mitigated and proactively addressed. If the prerequisites mentioned by the experts are tackled and blended learning risks are mitigated, blended learning can be the right policy for improving educational equity.

Department

Public Policy & Administration Department

Degree Name

MA in Public Policy

Graduation Date

6-1-2017

Submission Date

February 2017

First Advisor

Barsoum, Dr. Ghada

Committee Member 1

Bali, Dr. Maha

Committee Member 2

Osman, Dr. Gihan

Extent

52 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

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