The Ministry of Education, headed by Saad Zaghloul Pasha, is proceeding with remarkable capability, despite the real difficulties it faces in realizing the aspirations of those who wish to make the educational system national. It is therefore a cause for regret that the Arab press persistently attacks and criticizes Mr. Dunlop, the Ministry's advisor, who has a great deal of credit for the good results achieved. However, whatever is said about the education system, it is not fair to place all the blame on the advisor. Those who criticize Mr. Dunlop overlook a fact worthy of mention: the Ministry of Education, under Saad Pasha Zaghloul, is fully competent for his position and would never be content to take credit for a plan or administrative style that is not his own. His history of bravery, chivalry, and steadfastness in supporting the just demands of his citizens is sufficient proof for the intelligent Egyptians that the government's plan for education, which he is responsible for developing and implementing, is, in his opinion, the best way to improve education in this country.

Primary Education (Kuttabs) Primary education in private kuttabs continues to progress, which is a cause for satisfaction and contentment. It is worth noting that the number of kuttab students (i.e., those in the elementary stage) is 15,000, and the number of teachers is 1,770. All of these teachers are paid, and the students are taught free of charge.

A committee for inspecting kuttabs now consists of three inspectors and an assistant inspector, all of whom are Egyptian sheikhs who graduated from Al-Azhar and the Dar Al-Ulum school. Recently, the deputy chief justice of Assiut was appointed director of kuttabs. He is one of those who have shown great interest in developing primary education in recent years.

The Ministry of Education publishes and subsidizes an independent book. The Ministry also provides aid to 414 kuttabs. In addition to these, there are 588 kuttabs directly supervised by the Ministry, with 58,817 male students and 4,417 female students.

Nine of the kuttabs are exclusively for girls, with female teachers, and the number of female students in six of them exceeds 1,000, while the number in the other three is seventy.

Government kuttabs are visited by doctors twice a week. The number of students suffering from trachoma has decreased from 15% to 8.5% this year, compared to 15% last year.