Your top education stories over the past week:

• Government spending on education, health, the new universal healthcare program, and commodity subsidies increased during the first half of the current fiscal year, according to a Finance Ministry release last week.
• A recently published AUC paper found 75% of Egyptian students sit in overcrowded classrooms and that current school development and funding schemes are not targeting those in greatest need of the resources.
• Orascom Development Egypt signed a EGP 500 mn agreement in partnership with the UK’s Kent College to develop an international school in its O West project in 6 October that would see it hold 1500 students and 70 classrooms.
• Kuwaiti students are having trouble authenticating their Egyptian university degrees back home due to the slow pace of certificate awards in Egypt and bureaucratic hurdles in the Gulf country.
• The World Bank’s global director for education praised Egypt’s efforts in implementing the Education Reform Support Project, developing a new curriculum and updating outdated information technology systems.
• The Education Ministry signed an agreement with Japanese experts to assist in the supervision of some newly developed schools adopting the Japanese Tokkatsu holistic education system.