CAIRO — Hala Abu Saad, parliament member and representative of Egypt's Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Committee, submitted a proposal to parliament April 5 to halt the printing of free textbooks and instead make them available in electronic format. The proposal is designed to spare the state the printing cost, which is estimated at 1.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($100 million), and curb the 2016/2017 fiscal year budget deficit of 319.46 billion pounds ($17.5 billion).

The proposal has sparked debate in parliament. While some lawmakers have welcomed the idea as a way to keep up with technological advancements and make good use of modern technologies to save and efficiently allocate taxpayers’ money, others rejected it, citing concerns about the availability of resources such as internet access and equipment in computer labs.

Abu Saad told Al-Monitor, “The proposal was made given that the textbooks printing cost amounted to 1.8 billion pounds in the 2016/2017 state budget. Yet it is to no avail, because students neglect the textbooks and are using supplemental books instead." These books contain the same lessons with often better explanations and many practical exercises that help students prepare for exams.

Abu Saad explained that necessity is the mother of invention, and the fact that students will need this technology will increase private and public investment in internet access in remote areas. “Also, most of the social classes have tablets and computers in hand. The opening of cybercafes would allow the remaining small percentage of students to have access to e-books outside the school hours at low cost.”