The Egyptian Knowledge Bank: Responding to people’s today thirst for knowledge

The world has long stood in awe of Egypt's rich and glorious history, rightfully so. Pharaohs, pyramids, temples, great wonders, unsolved mysteries, fascinating mythology, astounding archaeological monuments, a legendary ancient civilization, and, not to forget, the Great Library of Alexandria, one of the largest knowledge repositories and learning hubs in the ancient world, that helped Egypt establish itself, over the centuries, as a prominent cultural and intellectual centre. In the digital era, the Government of Egypt has thought of an up-to-date solution of re-creating such a knowledge hub that provides customized responses to the needs of 21st Century people.

The Land of the Nile has recently been making the headlines with its growing national online knowledge bank. Founded by Dr Tarek Shawky, the Minister of Education and Technical Education in Egypt (MoETE), and launched in 2016 under the patronage of President Abdel El-Fattah El-Sisi, the Egyptian Knowledge Bank(link is external)(EKB) is a ground-breaking, expanding platform that grants all Egyptian nationals of all ages (estimated at around 100 million people) free access to the largest amount of knowledge, research, cultural and scientific content, journals, periodicals, and education resources for all education levels in English and Arabic.

The EKB has attracted significant traffic by creating a dedicated website and partnering with big world-renowned publishing houses and pioneers in several fields, that rushed to have their contents published and made available to readers, researchers, children, students, educators and the general public. The platform also offers capacity-building opportunities and hosts workshops and events covering a wide range of topics and disciplines. All Egyptians living in Egypt can create a free user account to access the platform and participate in its workshops and events, using their National ID and email address. Foreigners who live and study in Egypt are granted access to EKB resources upon issuance of required permissions from competent entities. It is also important to note that an EKB mobile application is expected to be launched soon to facilitate access and maximize reach.

"Towards a society that thinks, learns and innovates". That is the vision of the EKB which aims to build knowledge and capacities as well as to advance education and scientific discovery in Egypt.