Beyond caught up with Hisham El Sherif to discuss how far along Egypt has gone in its quest to become a knowledge society. Below are excerpts from his interview with Samia Farid Shihata. Beyond : Can you give us a brief overview of how and when information technology (IT) was introduced in Egypt? El Sherif : You should first know that the real start of computer technology in Egypt was in the early sixties. That was when, at the initiative of Dr. Naim Abu Taleb and Dr. Yehia El Hakim, the first department of computer science in all of the developing world was set up in the Faculty of Engineering in Alexandria University. The first computer was set up at the Ministry of Planning under Ibrahim Helmy Abdel Rahman, At that time, computers required huge capital investments and could only be used by highly specialized people. The real global revolution in computer technology took place in the late seventies and early eighties with the development of microcomputers and user-friendly software packages which allowed ordinary people to use computers. Another revolution took place with the emergence of a new field, called Decision Support Systems that was developed jointly by the Schools of Engineering and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Coincidentally, I was pursuing my studies there at the time and became the first PhD holder in this field. Its application quickly spread in the US corporate sector where the likes of Citibank and others adopted it. My contribution was to develop applications of the system beyond the private sector, namely to two domains: Government and developing countries. I put together a strategy called "Accelerated Development Strategy for Developing Countries from an Informatics and Decision Support Perspective." I had a dream of applying it in Egypt, and was fortunate that, in 1984 the Minister of Administrative Reform and Cabinet Affairs at the time, Dr. Atef Ebeid, invited me to do just that. In Egypt, he told me, "we take decisions with no basic studies; we take decisions that are contradictory to one another. Our decisions are judgmental, not rational, and they are always taken under pressure. We started by collecting data and building programs and projects around strategic and infrastructure issues. By 1990, we had more than 900 projects, including the main Decision Support Center in the Egyptian Cabinet. By 1999, we had established similar centers in every ministry, governorate, and district and in one third of the villages in the country. That year, in an official ceremony, President Mubarak announced the completion of the building of Egypt's information infrastructure. That included the digitization of information in every ministry and every governorate, that is the ministry of finance, of electricity, agriculture, all of them. The outcome was digitization of every organization in the Government and building national databases in the financial, economic, social, legal, cultural sectors, etc.. It has all been done. We built an information system that could support and transform the country's economic growth. Of course, we also introduced the internet to Egypt in 1994. Our second task was to "build" people. We set up simple training programs to train 300,000 per year to use computers at different levels. We also set up 42 higher centers, one of which, the Regional IT Institute (RITI), has awarded 1000 masters degrees. No less than 40 percent of graduates of the Information Technology Institute (ITI) on the Pyramids road have been hired by such companies like Microsoft and Oracle in the US. Our third task was to introduce computers in schools; and our fourth task was to develop companies that help leverage the mind. Beyond : Are you satisfied with the progress made thus far in integrating IT generally and in our schools and universities, in particular? El Sherif : No I am not. I believe that the information and data infrastructure that was developed in the 80's and 90's have not been put to efficient and effective use later on by the government or by the society at large. Was that deliberate or not ? I think both. However, the people who participated in these projects are now in leading positions. The emphasis over the last 8 years has been more on technology and less on information. In all fairness, Egypt is lately leap frogging in communications infrastructure, the Internet, and information technology, but this is not proportional to the use of information or making it publicly available. As for your question about schools and universities, again the answer is NO. We introduced the technology to schools and universities, but did not use it to enhance the learning process and the assimilation of knowledge. We find computers everywhere. You find internet connections everywhere. But to what extent are they being used to leverage education? To improve the assimilation of a course in geography or maths or English at schools? Or to enhance the process of knowledge development and research at the university level? We have the hardware. That's the easy part. What about the courseware? The learning environment? The teachers? You need to have a strategic plan for that. You need to mobilize resources, only one of which is technology. Technology alone cannot deliver education. Beyond : You are saying that the basic infrastructure is there. So what needs to be done to integrate information technology into the learning process? El Sherif : First, we need to mentally decide as a nation that we need to become one of the top ten in the world in terms of education delivery. This should be a target for our children. Let's categorically compete with the best curricula in the world for the 21st century. Lets make sure that we have the best learning environment from kindergarten, to school, to university. Beyond : But how do we achieve that? El Sherif : Basically, we pull out all the studies we have. Put them into a program and a policy set that is independent from any minister or prime minister and make sure the partnership exists among all the constituencies, the government, civil society, the private sector. Make sure that the policy set is applied homogeneously across the whole country. Make sure the results are transparent across the whole country. And make sure we are in partnership with the best in the world. Lets see what others have done. Sixty years ago, India put together a group of universities called the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) spread across different governorates. They decided to model them after MIT, Harvard, and Stanford. To do that they first sent students to these US universities for training. When they returned they gave each one a villa and had them develop the programs, the courses, etc.. modeled on the universities they studied at. They did that in collaboration with the universities themselves, Harvard, MIT, etc... Today the IIM in Ahmadabad, in the middle of nowhere, only accepts students with a GMAT score of 700 or above, which is ahead of Harvard in recent years! In fact, their graduates have a higher market value than those from Harvard. It took 50 years for India to achieve this. But that's the way to go. Beyond : What do you think are the most important obstacles we face today in terms of building an information society? El Sherif : The obstacles are in execution and implementation. We know what it takes to build an information society and we are not doing it. I'd like to know where are the centers that were developed ? I hope they are not dead. Where are the people who were there? Right now here is what we need to do: First , we need to send 1000 to Harvard, Princeton, MIT, etc.. every year. How many have we sent in the last 20 years? The President approved sending 1000 PhD students 10 years ago. What happened? Second, we need to build Institutes of Research. To build a knowledge society you have to build a strong base for science and technology- to achieve excellence in all frontiers of knowledge that matter to you. You need hundreds of Ahmed Zuweil. We have to stop talking and continue implementing. There is something fundamentally wrong in the execution and continuity of programs in this country. We don't have accountability. There is no monitoring of decisions. To move towards a knowledge society we need information to guide our policies, strategies, programs and projects. This only happens when the whole society is properly informed.
