Douglas Dunlop
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Douglas Dunlop was a Scottish teacher and missionary who, during the British occupation of
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
(1888–1922), controversially created what became known as the 'Dunlop-system' in Egyptian education. He was widely seen as an opponent of Egyptian nationalist aspirations in education. From 1882-1922, Egypt was under
British military The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, su ...
occupation, and its government heavily under the influence (control) of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. The first
Consul-General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...
,
Sir Evelyn Baring Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, (; 26 February 1841 – 29 January 1917) was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British controller-general in Egypt during 1879, part of the international control whic ...
(later 1st
Earl of Cromer Earl of Cromer is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, held by members of the Baring family, of German descent. It was created for Evelyn Baring, 1st Viscount Cromer, long time British Consul-General in Egypt. He had already been cr ...
), appointed Dunlop as British 'consultant' to the Egyptian Ministry of Education. Dunlop was suggested for this task by Cromer's former tennis partner. Dunlop and the British had two concerns. Firstly, they were concerned with the debt-ridden Egyptian economy, and secondly with creating a suitable (and compliant) educated governing class and
civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, modelled on their experiences in
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. The education policy of the Egyptian government prior to the occupation had been to create a meritocratic system. Dunlop, on the other hand, oversaw the creation of an elitist two-tier system, with fees introduced for the elite schools. Modernisation also occurred, with elemental schooling being both centralised and expanded. Prior to the British occupation, the administrative
languages of Egypt Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
had been French and Turkish. With British influence,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
became the preferred language. This brought increasing controversy, as Egyptian nationalists sought to reassert
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
. Dunlop, even after thirty years in Egypt, like Cromer, did not speak Arabic. He primarily promoted teaching in English, preferring to employ British teachers and attempting to marginalise teaching in Arabic and French. In 1907,
Saad Zaghlul Saad Zaghloul ( ar, سعد زغلول / ; also ''Sa'd Zaghloul Pasha ibn Ibrahim'') (July 1859 – 23 August 1927) was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalist Wafd Party. He led a civil disobedience ...
(later revolutionary leader and post-independence prime minister) became Minister of Education. Zaghul strongly promoted Arabic in education, and necessarily locking horns with his British advisor. Dunlop became a figure associated with British resistance to Egyptian
anti-colonialism Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
. Dunlop resigned his post during the
Egyptian revolution of 1919 The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 ( ''Thawra 1919'') was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of the rev ...
.


See also

*
History of Modern Egypt According to most scholars the history of modern Egypt dates from the start of Muhammad Ali's rule in 1805 and his launching of Egypt's modernization project that involved building a new army and suggesting a new map for the country, though the ...


Sources

*Donald Malcolm Reid, Cairo University and the Making of Modern Egypt, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 1990) *Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, My Diaries, entries for 1906 (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed) *Al-Ahram Weekly On-line Archive

*Mona Russell, Competing Overlapping and Contradictory Agendas: Egyptian Education under British Occupation 1882-1922. Available in PD

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunlop, Douglas Education in Egypt 19th century in Egypt Protestant missionaries in Egypt Scottish Protestant missionaries Scottish schoolteachers Year of birth missing Year of death missing 20th century in Egypt Missionary educators