مجانية التعليم قبل الجامعي في التشريعات المصرية من 1923-2019م بين النص والتطبيق : دراسة تحليلية
The study aims at investigating the implementation of pre-university free education laws in Egyptian schools from 1923-2019 in light of the Egyptian legislations during this period. In order to look into this issue, the researcher identified a number of indicators for pre-university free education. For example, the percentage of educational expenditures based on Egypt’s GDP and government budget was one of these indicators. In addition, the researcher also considered availability of school buildings, full-time school day, class size, teaching competence, school lunch. Based on these indicators, both constitutional and legal legislations related to pre university free education were analyzed and the mismatch between legal texts and their implementation were identified. The study used the descriptive method given its suitability to the issues investigated in this research project. The analysis was categorized based on five time periods since each period had its own political orientations that affected educational practices. The results of the study showed that free education has not been fully implemented since the legislation was introduced. There is still a persistent gap between legal texts that promote free education and the actual implementation of such texts – free education is still a slogan that is void of substance. Expenditure on education has decreased if calculated as a ratio based on Egypt’s GDP. In addition, the government has not adhered to the constitutional text that allocates 4 % of GDP to educational expenditure. As a result, annual family expenses on education have increased. The results also indicated that only two thirds of public primary and preparatory schools and 50 % of secondary schools enforce the full-time school day policy. Class size has increased to 51.4 in elementary schools, to 46.8 in preparatory schools, and to 52.5 in secondary schools. As for workforce, there is a quantitative and qualitative shortage of teachers. Finally, the results indicated that school lunch was not provided to all students in public schools. The study provides a number of recommendations that tap into addressing the mismatch between legal texts and their implementation. (Published abstract)