Sunday 30 September 2018 was first day of school at the new Dabaa Technical School for Nuclear Energy Technology in the town of Dabaa, Matrouh, some 160km west of Alexandria. Dabaa is the site on which Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, the capacity of which will be 4,800 ME, will be built. The Russian firm Rosatom will start construction on the site in 2020 and should complete it by 2026.
Dabaa Technical School is built next to Dabaa nuclear power plant. Mohamed Megahed, Deputy Minister for Technical Education was there to welcome the first students and teachers. He was accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Education and Matrouh local government.
The school was the fruit of the cooperation between Egypt’s ministries of education, electricity and military production. Mr Megahed explained that the Dabaa Technical School for Nuclear Energy Technology is the first of its kind in the Middle East. Built on a EGP70 million budget the school includes 15 classrooms, 10 laboratories for electricity, mechanics, electronics, physics, chemistry and computer science, a sports court and a student and staff hostel. It can accommodate 375 students in five classes.
Mr Megahed said that the Ministry of Education and Technical Education is promoting modern, advanced technical schools. He said that Egyptians, who for ages tended to look down on technical education, have changed their outlook and many of them are applying for their children in new technical schools, especially Dabaa School. Graduates of Dabaa Technical School are expected to work in the nearby nuclear plant.
In addition to the new technical school, Mr Megahed visited the Dabaa Navy Primary School, and oversaw the implementation of the new ministry programme for kindergarten and first primary classes.
Watani International
2 October 2018