Families, and not just children, are the focus of Catholic schools in Egypt.
“This school supports a very large group of people, who want to give their children a good education,” says Sister Lucy Ramzi Yacoub, director of Notre Dame des Apôtres School in Ezbet el Nakhl, a very populous and poor suburb of Cairo.
School tuition is reduced or waived for families undergoing difficulties, such as the sickness or death of a parent. The school is open almost year-round, offering remedial classes to children with learning difficulties or struggling in certain subjects.
This ongoing commitment to learning and the respect with which their children are treated are what parents and students appreciate about the school.
The Don Bosco School in Alexandria, run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, also assists students in learning beyond the classroom.
The school provides students with social and psychological services, and they learn to strengthen their social relationships with their peers.
“Our service is to children and young people in need,” says Father Jesudos Arokiam, the school’s director, adding that it is common to find that neither parent of a student in the school has had any formal education.
Read about the work of Catholic schools in Egypt in “Reassuring Presence” in the December 2022 issue of ONE.
Catch a glimpse of these two Catholic schools in Egypt in the video below.