The state of controversy prompted the Ministry of Education and Technical Education to comment through its spokesman, Shadi Zalta, who explained that:
- Highlighting the artist Samiha Ayoub comes within the framework of introducing students to the most prominent influential figures in the field of theater in the book Skills and Activities for the sixth grade of primary school.
- The primary goal is to develop students’ culture and introduce them to influential figures in a number of different fields, which include science, literature, arts, economics, and industry through the book of skills and activities.
- The pages circulating on social media for false details related to the history of the artist Samiha Ayoub have nothing to do with the ministry’s book and have nothing to do with it.
Art critic Tarek El-Shenawy believes that placing the artist Samiha Ayoub in the educational curricula is a good step, stressing that there are other artists who also deserve to be placed in the curriculum.
El-Shenawy added to Sky News Arabia:
- I am very happy to include Samiha Ayoub in the curriculum, and it was possible to include other artists, writers, and creative people in all fields.
- This is a beginning, and the door should not be closed to artists who deserve to be included in the curriculum, such as Yahya Al-Fakharani, Ahmed Zaki, or Adel Imam.
- Samiha Ayoub is one of the most important artists, and many others are also of great importance, such as Sayed Darwish, Muhammad Abdel Wahab, and Umm Kulthum, but this is a first step and we hope that the steps will go beyond in the future.
- The published information about Samiha Ayoub in the curriculum contains errors, such as her graduation from the Higher Institute of Cinema, class of 1952, and this is not true because she graduated from the Institute of Acting, while the Institute of Cinema was established seven years after 1952.
For his part, Hosni Al-Sayed, a full-time professor of curricula at the National Center for Educational Research and an educational expert, confirms that art, along with other fields such as sports, media, and others, expresses Egypt’s soft power.
Hosni added in his interview with Sky News Arabia that Samiha Ayoub is a capable artist who has a role in art, but that is not enough for her to be placed in the school curriculum for the following reasons:
- There are priorities in the curriculum, and the rising generations are obsessed with becoming artists or footballers, especially with the very good money that those working in this field earn.
- The focus of the younger generations on art and football has led to an exaggerated interest on the part of parents in these fields, and they are now spending huge sums of money on their children so that they can become football players, for example.
- Parents’ focus on football and art reduced the importance of other areas and thus reduced competencies in many important areas.
- There is no objection to art in itself, but rather to knowing the priorities of society at the present time, in which social violent crimes occur, and does not produce scientific competencies to a sufficient extent, which requires the curriculum maker to be careful in choosing the examples he presents in a way that suits the societal situation, and focuses To consolidate family values.
- There are many figures that I see as more deserving of being included in school curricula, such as Nabawiyya Musa, the atomic scientist, Ali Ibrahim, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Hoda Shaarawi, Ahmed Lotfy Al-Sayyid, Ihsan Abdel Quddus, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, the writer Yahya Haqqi, and many others in the field of politics, sociology, and various sciences.
- Even in the artistic field, Samiha Ayoub has distinguished works, but I believe that there are those more worthy than her, such as Najeeb Al-Rihani.
- Egypt had an educational renaissance that was on pace with the renaissance of Japan and South Korea, but we were late after that, and curricula are an important factor in achieving the renaissance.
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