Egypt’s Ministry of Education has seized direct control of the Nile Egyptian International Schools after a school security guard confessed to sexually assaulting five children, triggering national outrage and exposing deep failures in school oversight.
In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said it had formed a crisis committee to oversee operations at the schools' First Settlement campus in New Cairo. It was preparing to pursue legal action against all officials found to have enabled or ignored the abuse.
The ministry also pledged to expand surveillance, increase adult supervision, and conduct a comprehensive audit of school operations. This is the third incident of this kind in this school term.
The announcement followed police complaints filed by multiple parents, who accused the guard of sexually and physically abusing their children. The suspect later admitted to five separate incidents of assault on campus.
On Saturday, Abdel Moneim Imam, parliamentarian and head of the Justice Party, submitted an urgent inquiry to Education Minister Mohamed Abdel Latif, describing the assaults as “criminal acts enabled by gross administrative negligence,” as reported by local media sources.
Imam said the scandal underscored systemic rot, not just individual wrongdoing. Parents had submitted formal complaints to school management over previous incidents and troubling disclosures from their children, but their concerns were ignored, forcing them to escalate to the police.
“This is not just about one perpetrator,” Imam said. “It’s about an entire system that ignored warning signs and abandoned its duty to protect children.”
His inquiry also exposed structural dysfunction inside the Nile school network, pointing to a revolving door of leadership. With over 10 principals appointed and removed in under two years, and the hiring of unqualified administrators, some are allegedly linked by family ties to decision-makers. Others were dismissed after short tenures, raising concerns about nepotism and conflict of interest.
Pattern of violence in Egypt’s classrooms
This case is part of a disturbing trend. At Alexandria Language School, a gardener was recently convicted of assaulting four kindergarten students. In response, the education ministry placed the school under direct financial and administrative supervision.
Last week, the Alexandria Criminal Court referred the gardener’s case to the Grand Mufti — a step toward issuing a death sentence.
In another case last month, prosecutors charged four workers at Seeds International School in Salam City with kidnapping and sexually assaulting at least five children. The victims were reportedly lured into a secluded room, where they were threatened and abused. The case has since been transferred to military prosecution.
A southern Mansoura criminal court also sentenced a student's father to five years last week, on charges of sexual extortion of his child's female teacher. The ruling came despite the school's attempts to cover up the case, forcing the teacher to resign with no compensation.
In recent months, the Public Prosecution has referred multiple teachers to disciplinary trials on similar charges. In 2020, Egypt’s top administrative court upheld the dismissal of a teacher who had harassed 120 students in Alexandria—a ruling that confirmed sexual violence in schools is systemic and state responses have been inadequate.
