Teacher referred to interrogation for demanding educational reform

Teacher and syndicate leader Ayman al-Bily was referred to interrogation last week for writing articles critical of Egypt’s education minister and government education policies.

In an interview with Mada Masr on Sunday, Bily said he refused to attend the first interrogation by the ministry’s legal department on Thursday, adding that he doesn’t plan to attend future sessions and the ministry should send legal representatives to question him at his work place in Daqahlia.

He explained that he is being officially investigated in relation to a number of articles he wrote for Saboura educational website, demanding educational reform and social justice. One article, which he wrote in March this year, is titled, “No one can hide the truth, not even a backward minister,” in which he criticized the removal of Mohamed ElBaradie from the list of Nobel prize winners in the curriculum. In another article, Bily argued that leaking thanaweya amma exams is a deliberate practice to encourage the privatization of education in Egypt.

Bily, a founding member of the Independent Teachers Syndicate suggests the articles are not the main reason for his summons, citing a phone interview he had with Sada al-Balad channel on the leaking of thanaweya amma exams earlier this month.

During the interview Bily directly accused leaders within the Education Ministry and officials at the ministry’s "secret printhouse" of leaking the exams, and criticized Education Minister Al-Helaly Al-Sherbiny for not dealing adequately with the situation.

“Directly after the interview, the Interior Ministry arrested officials. My interrogation is a form of punishment for the information I spread. It is an attempt to steer me away from monitoring examination violations. My words provoked a state of panic,” Bily asserted.

Education Ministry officials were not available to comment on his remarks.

“The Independent Teachers Syndicate peacefully defends the rights of teachers and has long criticized the ministry and the state’s educational policies. This has always been met with the suspension and interrogation of teachers,” Bily asserted.

Earlier this month the Education Ministry canceled the thanaweya amma exam on Islam after leaks on social media minutes before it started. A number of ministry officials and Facebook administrators were arrested in relation to the leaks.

The Egyptian Center for the Right to Education declared its support for Bily in a statement, adding that his interrogation is a violation of the Constitution and the international agreements Egypt signed upholding the right to freedom of speech.

“It is better that the ministry focuses its efforts on confronting widespread corruption, where leaking exams is only the tip of the iceberg, rather than targets people with ideas that aim to promote free education for all Egyptians, which is an important right that should not be turned into a commodity,” the statement said.

The center’s director Abdel Hafez Tayel told Mada Masr in a telephone interview that Bily’s interrogation is part of a policy by the ministry to limit media communication: “The ministry usually sends written orders to schools banning teachers or school principals from contacting the media without prior permission from the ministry. This is the legal basis for Bily’s interrogation,” he asserted.