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Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin

Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin
حسين كامل بهاء الدين
Minister of Education
In office
1991 – 9 July 2004
PresidentHosni Mubarak
Preceded byMoustafa Kamal Helmi
Succeeded byAhmed Gamal El-Din Moussa
Personal details
Born18 September 1932
Zagazig, Sharqia Governorate, Egypt
Died29 July 2016(2016-07-29) (aged 83)
Political partyNDP (until 2011)
Alma materCairo University
Awards
Scientific career
InstitutionsCairo University

Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin (Arabic: حسين كامل بهاء الدين, 18 September 1932 – 29 July 2016) was an Egyptian professor of paediatrics and education minister between 1991 and 2004.

Biography

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Early life and education

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Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin was born on 18 September 1932 in Zagazig, Sharqia Governorate, Egypt,[1][2] to a mother (Mona) who converted in 1943 from Christianity to Islam before meeting Bahaeddin's father (Kamel) in London.[3] Bahaeddin received his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1954 and then a doctorate in paediatrics from Cairo University in 1959.[4][5] In 1965, he became secretary of the Egyptian Youth Organisation until 1968.[2][6]

Medical career

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In 1962, Bahaeddin joined the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University as a lecturer and, in 1973, he was promoted to professor of paediatrics. He then assumed the positions of head of the paediatric department and director of the new university children's hospital between 1983 and 1991.[7][8]

Bahaeddin was a member of the Egyptian Scientific Academy, and in 1989 he assumed the presidency of the Egyptian Society of Paediatrics until 1991.[9] He was awarded the World Health Organization‘s Child Health Foundation Fellowship in 1989.[10]

Minister of Education

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Bahaeddin served as Minister of Education between 1991 and 2004.[2] During his tenure, he extended compulsory education to six years,[11] and prohibited corporal punishment, even in private schools.[11][12][13] However, a 1998 study found that random physical punishment (not proper formal corporal punishment) was being used extensively by teachers in Egypt to punish behavior they regarded as unacceptable. Around 80 percent of the boys and 60 percent of the girls were punished by teachers using their hands, sticks, straps, shoes, punches, and kicks as the most common administration methods. The most commonly reported injuries were bumps and contusions.[14]

Bahaeddin uncapped the number of university entrance exams, which was limited to one. He believed that poverty and malnutrition are responsible for the low academic and achievement level of students and this step will, firstly, to eliminate the fear of the National Secondary Exam, and secondly, the student who did not receive private lessons will be compensated because "repetition ensures improving performance". However, repeating the exam requires paying the exam fees.[15]

In 1994, Bahaeddin tried to pass a rule that would have prohibited schoolgirls from donning the hijab unless their parents provided a letter of consent to the school.[16] However, the decree was withdrawn due to public outcry over the measure, which was seen as part of a systematic campaign against Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.[17][18]

In 1998, Bahaeddin passed a decree that would punish any student proven to have assaulted a teacher with final dismissal.[19]

Bahaeddin frequently discussed democracy and the need to support instructors in engaging pupils in more democratic practices. A workshop on using democratic instruments in the classroom was conducted by the Group for Democratic Development (GDD) in 1999 for Upper-Egyptian teachers. The Education Ministry received the GDD's findings and an offer to assist them in more training sessions along with their findings. Subsequently, close to 30 workshop attendees were held at the State Security Office for up to 24 hours. The Ministry of Education then withheld 15 days of each participant's monthly pay and accused them of teaching homosexuality and atheism.[20]

In 2003, Bahaeddin defended the government's control over education by emphasising that doing so would prevent "enculturation and socialisation" and promote national harmony,[21][22] as the military, economy, and political spheres all have a stake in education as a matter of national security.[23] However, following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the Ministry of Education removed over 20 percent of the instructional materials that was focused on the achievements and legacies of the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP) from the national curricula.[22]

In 2004, the Ministry of Education dismissed a considerable number of educators that it alleged had pro-Islamic and Muslim Brotherhood leanings. The decision was made after receiving information from ministry managers and security personnel, as well as complaints from the parents of the pupils. According to a report in the Gulf News, the decision was not made in reaction to US demands for reforms that would "eliminate a climate that Washington considers as helping to breed terrorism".[24][25] These reforms went to the extent of removing Quranic verses and the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed from school texts as part of the "New Basic Education Bilateral Agreement" with the US which will provide $64 million USD. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has donated more than $765 million USD to Egypt since 1975.[26]

On 9 July 2004, Bahaeddin was succeeded by Ahmed Gamal El-Din Moussa as the new Minister of Education, following a cabinet reshuffle led by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.[27]

Personal life and death

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Bahaeddin married Samiha Abdel Salam Soliman on 3 February 1966. He died on 29 July 2016 after a struggle with illness.[28][29]

Awards and honours

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Bahaeddin was awarded the Child Health Foundation Fellowship by Ihsan Doğramacı Family Health Foundation in 1989.[10] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1993.[2] He received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Glasgow, Hacettepe University and University of East Anglia in 1997, and St. Olaf College in 1999.[2]

In 2006, Bahaeddin received the Egyptian Order of the Republic (First Class).[2] In 2008, he was elected honorary president of the International Society of Tropical Pediatrics for life. In 2009, he became a member of the International Children’s Institute (ICC), Ankara, and was elected in the same year as honorary president.[2]

Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin Primary School in Alexandria was named posthumously after him.[30][31]

References

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  1. ^ "Imperato, Mansoor – II 35,17; architect – WW Saudi Arabia 1983". Degruyter. 1983. doi:10.1515/9783110976052.491.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g السيرة الذاتية على موقع المجلس العربي للطفولة والتنمية. (وصلة بي دي إف) Archived 2016-08-17 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "كامل بهاء الدين: والدتي لم تكن يهودية.. وأدعو لمرشد الإخوان بالمغفرة - بوابة الثانوية العامة المصرية". thanwya.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  4. ^ فكرى, توفيق شعبان واميرة (29 July 2016). ""التعليم" تنعى حسين كامل بهاء الدين وزير التعليم الأسبق". الوطن (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  5. ^ agel, Khabr (29 July 2016). "توفى اليوم وزير التربية والتعليم السابق حسين كامل بهاء الدين بعد صراع طويل مع المرض". خبر عاجل. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  6. ^ "شبكة إعلام المرأه العربية تنعى د. حسين كامل بهاء الدين". جريدة البشاير (in Arabic). 29 July 2016. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  7. ^ al-Thaqāfah, United Arab Republic Wizārat (1959). Cultural Register. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  8. ^ The Cultural Yearbook. al Idarah al-ʼAmmah lil-Thaqafah. 1959. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  9. ^ "EPA 2015". www.misr2000online.net. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Recipients of the Ihsan Doğramacı Family" (PDF). Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  11. ^ a b "حكاية "بهاء الدين مع التعليم" | استمر 13 سنة وزيرا ومنع الضرب بالمدارس وابتكر "التحسين"". صدى البلد (in Arabic). 30 July 2021. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  12. ^ مبتدا (31 July 2016). "حسين كامل بهاء الدين.. قرارات غيّرت شكل التعليم فى مصر". www.mobtada.com (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  13. ^ "وفاة حسين كامل بهاء الدين وزير التعليم الأسبق". الأهرام اليومي (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  14. ^ Youssef RM, Attia MS, Kamel MI; Attia; Kamel (October 1998). "Children experiencing violence. II: Prevalence and determinants of corporal punishment in schools". Child Abuse Negl. 22 (10): 975–85. doi:10.1016/S0145-2134(98)00084-2. PMID 9793720.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "حسين كامل بهاء الدين.. 50 عاماً بين السياسة والتعليم". دار الهلال (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  16. ^ Silver, Vernon (30 June 1996). "In Egypt's Schools, Fashion Is Politics". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  17. ^ "Scarf reversal". The Independent. 16 September 1994. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  18. ^ "Egypt: Reading between the "Red Lines": V. Government Repression". www.hrw.org. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  19. ^ "بشأن منع العنف فى المدارس". site.eastlaws.com. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  20. ^ Stacher, Joshua A. (2001). "A Democracy with Fangs and Claws and ITS Effects on Egyptian Political Culture". Arab Studies Quarterly. 23 (3): 83–99. ISSN 0271-3519. JSTOR 41858384. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  21. ^ "Education in Egypt: Key Challenges" (PDF). Chatham House. March 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  22. ^ a b Caravan, The (4 December 2016). "Political Illiteracy and State-Sponsored Narratives of History". The Caravan. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  23. ^ Zaki Ewiss, M.A.; Abdelgawad, Fatma; Elgendy, Azza (1 January 2019). "School educational policy in Egypt: societal assessment perspective". Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences. 1 (1): 55–68. doi:10.1108/JHASS-05-2019-004. ISSN 2632-279X. S2CID 199299225. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  24. ^ "Egypt dismisses teachers based on security reports". gulfnews.com. 25 March 2004. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  25. ^ "Egypt hits back with its own proposal: US plan for Middle East". DAWN.COM. 2 March 2004. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  26. ^ Manzo, Kathleen Kennedy (21 April 2004). "Muslim Textbooks Seen as Intolerant". Education Week. ISSN 0277-4232. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  27. ^ "Egypt cabinet list". MEED. 16 July 2004. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  28. ^ "وفاة حسين كامل بهاء الدين وزير التعليم الأسبق". اليوم السابع (in Arabic). 29 July 2016. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  29. ^ "وفاة حسين كامل بهاء الدين وزير التعليم الأسبق". النيل - قناة مصر الإخبارية. 29 July 2016. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  30. ^ "تليفون وعنوان مدرسة حسين كامل بهاء الدين الابتدائية, الظاهرية | مدارس حكومية | يلوبيدجز مصر". yellowpages.com.eg. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  31. ^ "مدرسة حسين كامل بهاء الدين الابتدائية تجريبي". madaresegypt.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
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