Egypt's school students to get archaeology atlas: Antiquities Minister

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School students to get archaeology atlas: Antiquities Minister

Aug. 16, 2015 15:26

Students - YOUM7 (archive)

By Rany Mostafa

CAIRO:  An archaeological atlas featuring ancient Egyptian archaeological sites will be distributed among primary school students starting from the 2015-16 academic year, Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty stated Sunday.
“The atlas has been developed by a joint committee of experts from the antiquities and education ministries,” Damaty said, adding that the new atlas will comprise details of all Egypt’s monumental sites from its prehistoric period (before 3,200 B.C.) through modern times.
“The move aims to entrench the principal of loyalty and raise cultural awareness of school students about the ancient Egyptian civilization,” he said, adding that the new book would be distributed among governmental school students of fourth grade and above.
“Governmental school students are not taught ancient Egyptian history properly; history curricula taught to students of grades 1 to 9 features highlight and superficial information including a few names of Egyptian Pharaohs,” professor of ancient Egyptian history at Minya University Sherif el-Sabban told The Cairo Post Monday.
The curricula taught to primary and preparatory school students is “unbalanced” as it mainly focuses on Islamic history while, according to Sabban, the curricula of high school students focus on Egypt’s modern and contemporary history.
The ministry also embarked on printing a two-part history book; the first features ancient Egyptian history eras while the second is to focus on the archaeological sites located in the governorate where the students live, according to Damaty.
CDs demonstrating Egypt’s sites will be attached to the history book, he added.
“Fresh archaeology college graduates will be trained and dispatched to primary and preparatory schools across the country to raise the students’ cultural and archaeological awareness,” according to Damaty.