Education and modernization in the third world: the experience of Egypt

Abstract

This paper was meant to investigate the role of education in enhancing political modernization in the Third World with a special reference to Egypt. Four functions of the political system which have a fairly clear relationship to education were the main concern, namely national integration, political participation, economic and social role of university graduates and the circulation of the ruling elite. The investigation has shown that the spread of modern education proved to be poorly integrative in the pursuit of political modernization. In terms of economic and social role of university graduates this paper has shown that the massive increase in university graduates is aggravated by lack of balance at different levels and disciplines and the consequent "oversupply" of large numbers of unproductive unemployables. As to the circulation of the ruling elite our investigation showed that the spread of higher education in Egypt has not led to a greater elite recruitment and thus wide "circulation of elite".