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Italian Schools in Egypt1
MARTA PETRICIOLI*
ABSTRACT This paper analyses the relevance of the Italian schools in Egypt from 1922 to 1940. The Italian fascist regime made a concerted effort to improve the quality of its schools abroad in order to enrol the greatest number of children from the families of the large Italian colony. Their aim was to improve their chances of finding a job in Egypt after leaving school and to indoctrinate them with the fascist ideology. This effort failed because of the changes brought about by the abolition of Capitulations in Egypt (1937), and because the Italian anti-Semitic laws (1938) led the Italian Jews of Egypt to send their children to French and British schools. In 1940, with Italy's entry into World War II, all the Italian schools in Egypt were closed by the Egyptian authorities.
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to answer a few questions about the locality, importance and aims of the Italian schools in Egypt in the period between the two world wars, until the changes brought about by the abolition of the Capitulations,2 the application of the fascist racial laws,3 and the beginning of World War II.
The need to have its own schools in an area where there was an important Italian community was felt even before the birth of the unified state of Italy, though the first official steps to do so were only taken in 1889 by the Crispi government. Before that date, only sporadic efforts had been made in this direction by religious orders, especially the Franciscans, and Free Mason lodges, who founded the first lay school in 1858. These efforts were abandoned after the ebb of Italian policy following the defeat at Adua and the events of the Italo-Turkish war, when the existing schools merely managed to educate the children of Italian citizens, especially those of the poorer classes.4
The Schools and Their Pupils
In the 1920s, Italian schools in Egypt were divided into three groups, according to the consular districts: Alexandria, Cairo (which included Upper Egypt), and Port Said (including the whole of the Suez Canal Zone). Alexandria, which had the largest community of Italians,s had the Scuole medie, a Liceo Scientifico and an Istituto Superiore, as...