- 59 -The number of its teachers was 110, and the number of its other scribes increased by 63. In addition to that, it received financial aid, and the number of teachers in these battalions was 6358, and the students were 156542. The government began to promote technical education and spent 4,350,000 Egyptian pounds on building schools in the last ten years. The money allocated for building schools this year reached 870,000 Egyptian pounds. However, all these efforts do not immediately yield the desired results that meet the urgent and insistent demand on the Ministry of Education, as it was not possible for literary and civil progress to keep pace with the material progress of the country in these circumstances. It is not surprising, as preparing a person for training takes longer than building an entire hospital. There is another difficulty that was and still is an obstacle. I mentioned that Egyptians were eager for technical knowledge, but acquiring this knowledge is not achieved by studying in primary schools. Rather, in most cases, it requires studying in secondary schools, and in many cases, studying in higher education institutions such as law and medicine, and the like. However, since young Egyptians considered the primary certificate sufficient for employment in the government and for promotion to well-paying positions, most of them contented themselves with studying in primary schools and did not exert themselves to study the long and difficult courses in secondary and higher education institutions, which incurred greater expenses than primary schools. Therefore, the number of applicants for the secondary certificate began to decrease steadily. In 1901, the opinion was read to remedy this deficiency: those seeking employment in the government who hold a primary certificate would not be appointed to positions with salaries exceeding 10 Egyptian pounds per month. This system was implemented to clarify the goal, and the influx of students to secondary schools increased significantly. However, those who believe in replacing Europeans with Egyptians in the government are mistaken in their assessment. They should either return to the previous system and not spend on obtaining the secondary certificate, and the result would be that there would be no Egyptians qualified for positions requiring the necessary qualifications and meeting the required conditions. Or they should spend on the secondary certificate or the intermediate certificate that I mentioned in my last report (page 139) and wait, which would naturally take time to obtain this certificate, and the result would be the employment of a large number of Europeans for a period of time in positions for which it is not possible to find suitable employees.