Enrollment in Egypt’s Higher Education Reaches 49.6%

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), the percentage of female students enrolled in higher education in Egypt reached 49.6% in the 2023/2024 academic year, compared to 50.4% for males.

In pre-university education, female enrollment rates varied across different levels. The enrollment rate was 23.6% for girls in the official pre-primary age group (typically ages 4–5). The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) stands at 104.5% in primary education (including all enrolled students, repeaters, and home-schoolers), and 106.1% in preparatory education.

The enrollment rate for general secondary education stood at 41.6%, while technical secondary education recorded 16.7% in the commercial track and 11.7% in the industrial track.

A GER of over 100% does not mean that every child of the official age group is enrolled; it can mean there are more students enrolled than the official school-age population, and the extra students are likely older or younger than the typical age for that level of school.

Some children in the official age group may still be missing from school (because of barriers like poverty, lack of access, etc.), but their absence isn't visible in the GER because the GER includes students of all ages.

Regarding school dropout rates between the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic years, the percentage of female dropouts was 0.2% at the primary level, compared to 0.3% for males. At the preparatory level, the dropout rate for females was 0.7%, while it stood at 0.6% for males.