Egypt’s Nile Schools: a pioneering partnership to develop a bilingual school system

Quick read

• Egypt’s Nile Egyptian International Schools (NIES), also known as Nile Schools, are a system of bilingual system of schools developed to provide a quality education from kindergarten to high school
• Our team at Cambridge Partnership for Education, the dedicated unit in Cambridge that works with governments, have a long relationship with the schools, and together we have developed a curriculum, teacher professional development and assessment
• Capacity building has been central to the project, so that we can gradually pass over responsibility to NIES, ensuring they are equipped with the knowledge to be able to run their assessments independently
   

Providing a bilingual, international education

Nile Egyptian International Schools (NIES), also known as Nile Schools, are a group of Egyptian schools offering an English-Arabic bilingual education. They are designed to prepare resilient, technologically empowered, global citizens.

There are currently four schools, but Egypt’s Ministry of Education has plans for more.

Cambridge’s role

At Cambridge Partnership for Education, as well as direct access to the University of Cambridge knowledge, research and networks, we have decades of experience in supporting governments around the world to improve the quality of education systems.

Our team works on education from every angle – curriculum, assessment, learning materials and teacher training – to help partners reach their goals.

For Egypt’s Nile Schools we have:

• Created the curriculum across all subjects from kindergarten to grade 12
• Carried out extensive teacher training and ongoing professional development
• Designed and developed assessments across all subjects, to international standards
• Focused on capacity building: our approach, as on all of our projects, was to build a sustainable future, gradually handing over responsibility

Certificates of Nile International Preparatory Education (CNIPE) are awarded for each subject upon completion of the basic education stage; and Certificates of Nile International Secondary Education (CNISE) are awarded for each subject after the end of pre-university education at the end of grade 12, and qualify students to join universities in Egypt and abroad.

The qualifications combine:

• Strong subject knowledge
• Development of higher order thinking
• Academic study skills requisite for higher education study internationally

Since 2016, there have been 10,240 entries for CNISE and 8,340 for CNIPE, with entries growing year on year. We have also had 30 qualifications recognised for admission into university.

Central to our partnership with the Nile Schools has been teacher professional development. We have delivered around 9,000 hours of training to 2,000 NIES teachers, unit staff and academic managers since 2009. This has encompassed:

• Grade and subject specific face-to-face intensive workshops which are then followed-up in an online virtual learning environment 
• A separate programme of certified professional development for teachers and school leaders (Certificate and Diploma level)
• Alignment to Cambridge professional development qualifications

James Thomson, Portfolio Development Manager at Cambridge Partnership for Education, says: “The Nile Schools are making important strides to modernise education in Egypt and to incorporate 21st century skills.”

He adds: “The last time I went to Cairo as part of this project, I visited one of the Nile Schools and the quality of teaching that we observed was excellent. The school was exceptional.”

The Egyptian Ministry of Education has ambitious plans to expand the Nile Schools system, and we at Cambridge are here to support them in partnership. We’ve been working hard to embed capacity development and ensure they are increasingly self-sufficient, having taken control of tests at lower grades.

James says: “The next steps are for the NIES to take greater control of assessment as they seek to expand, and as we carry out a phased transfer of responsibility into their hands, while still providing a support and review role.”

If you’re working to improve the quality of your country’s education system, then please contact us to find out how we can help you achieve your goals.