Human rights education in Egypt: Secondary school students’ perceptions

 

Muhammad M. Zain-Al-Dien

 

Research Article | Published December 2015

Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, Vol. 3(7), pp. 101-110

 

 

Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

 

*Corresponding author. Email: drmmz75@yahoo.com.      

 

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Human Rights Education (HRE) as perceived by third secondary school students in Egypt. This study adopted a survey research design in which the questionnaire was the main data collection instrument. The study participants comprised 273 third secondary school students at Cairo in Egypt. The result of the study reveals that the level of the effectiveness of HRE offered in Egypt is still low. In general, findings show that students of secondary school in Egypt have negative views regarding the effectiveness of HRE. Additionally, the study found that while there were significant differences among participants according to gender and department, there were no significant differences according to type of school. The study recommends that placing HRE in the secondary students’ context is critical for them to remember key concepts and to act upon them. Certain human rights issues such as discrimination, prejudice, poverty, hunger, and injustice are more important to this age than others. Moreover, Egyptian government and relevant key stakeholders are recommended to develop HRE across Egyptian public, private, and civil society sectors.