Participation in school upgrading: Gender, class and (in)action in Egypt

Due to population growth, urbanization, insufficient resources, cultural and environmental factors, and policy neglect, public sector schools in Egypt and many countries of the South are in a degraded condition. A community/NGO initiative at an Egyptian public sector girls' school was undertaken to explore how school facility upgrade could be achieved through a participatory action approach. The initiative yielded findings about how partnerships can contribute to mitigating the state's overburdened educational apparatus, the drawbacks of the shift system, the mutability of gender and class dynamics in school cultures, vocational education, and the ways in which the condition of a school facility affects the overall schooling experience.