Cooks, laundrymen, messengers, servants and liftboys etc., of the Semiramis Hotel sit in an unused ballroom listening to Shehata Effendi from the Ministry of Education who is taking this class. The new Egyptian Republican government is trying to efface the illiteracy of the country. Teacher, after their mornings work, are holding lectures for the people five afternoons a week in centres set aside for them. The ages of the pupils range from 12-45 and the course last a year. August 6, 1953.