Egyptian primary curriculum mandated military training for young children.

Evidence

In the middle of the 1830s these men were responsible for drawing up a more comprehensive military training policy. The new plans called for the improved drill and training of the troops (February 1835), and a year later for the reorganisation of the military training schools. The latter plan called for a system of fifty primary schools for military recruitment, four in Cairo and the rest in the provincial towns. It laid down uniform rules governing discipline, physical fitness, curriculum, exams, clothing, rations, teaching staff, administration, and inspection. Students were to be under continuous supervision, not only in class but during their walks outside the school, during recreation, and in the dormitories. ‘Discipline was to be strictly military and punishments were to be graded according to the misdemeanour; a student could be reprimanded in the presence of the whole school, confined to school, imprisoned and given bread and water, beaten with the kurbaj, or dismissed from school.’ — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 143 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Egypt’s monitorial schools were designed to produce disciplined civilians rather than soldiers; Egyptian educators modeled schooling explicitly on military drilling to build national power. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 304; Egypt’s national schools aimed to create disciplined civilians, not soldiers — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 234 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Egypt’s 1830s military reform subjected schoolboys to continuous surveillance and graded punishments #corroborates (0.92) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 143
• Egyptian military recruit families initially followed soldiers to camp in large numbers #complicates (0.70)