Education (sort of) topped the bill on a slow night for the nation’s talk shows

Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer hosted Education Minister Tarek Shawky for a talk about the 28 schools that will be following a Japanese model when they launch this fall. Shawky said the curricula will still be Egyptian, but the management will be Japanese. Shawky also told Amer that his ministry is planning to begin digitizing schoolbooks to save the EGP 2 bn it costs to print them each year.

On Hona Al Asema, newly minted Cairo University President Mohamed Osman El Khosht told interim host Lama Gebril that tuition fees at his university would not rise this year. El Khosht then spent the remainder of his time talking about offering pro bono treatment for students with Hepatitis C (watch, runtime 3:57).

Gebril also talked to Electricity Ministry spokesperson Ayman Hamza about the ministry’s decision to hire a private sector company to read residential units’ electricity meters to avoid citizens’ complaints about incorrect meter readings. According to Hamza, this is a temporary solution until the country transitions to smart meters in five years’ time (watch, runtime 29:55).

Meanwhile on OnLive, Planning Minister Hala El Said plugged her ministry’s efforts to set up an electronic network to link the country’s governorates. The network will allow the governorates to communicate electronically, and will act as a portal for government services (watch, runtime 29:48).