Coworking areas attract students of different age groups providing students with services and ambience they like during studying, all at affordable prices.
It is a new breathing place compensating for the absence of public libraries in the villages of Sohag; in a governorate with an area of 11,022 square kilometres, there are only two public libraries, and they’re located in the city of Sohag only.
Encouraging studying
The absence of libraries was what made Merola George, a high school student, resort to coworking areas, where she can better focus on her lessons.
“Coworking areas help me focus more on studying, compared to my house where most of the time is lost as I get distracted all the time”, said Merola, then added, “it motivates me more to go there with my friends, especially as we sit together and help each other in studying”.
As for the prices, Merola thinks that coworking areas prices are reasonable for the services they provide.
Merola George’s mother believes that these spaces benefit those who do not have the proper environment to study and focus, and it is a stop for students between their private lessons instead of wasting time going back home.
The majority of coworking areas in Sohag specify an average of 5 EGP per hour, whereas the owners offer discounts reducing the prices in case the customer stays at the place for several hours, some places make an offer for customers, they can pay for 5 hours and each extra hour is for free. Other places offer monthly subscriptions with average prices ranging between 100 to 200 EGP per month.
Quiet working areas
Abdulrahman Hazem, a third-year student in the Faculty of Commerce, Arabic Department, thinks that the coworking areas offer the silence and quietness he lacks at home; according to him, houses are full of distractions, like going on errands for the parents or talking to family members or fighting with siblings.
Hazem specifies the standards for choosing the coworking area in which he spends his time to study his lessons; first of all, it has to be quiet, for the faculty of commerce student prefers to study scientific subjects outside the house. He doesn’t feel exhausted in a coworking area where there are no beds that make him feel sleepy, and he can finish his tasks in an hour instead of five.
As for studying theoretical subjects, Hazem can study them at home for he only needs to read them.
Students search for quietness, good lighting, and strong WIFI during studying, the things the coworking areas provide, in addition to beverages and snacks that distinguish these places from public libraries or clubs, that’s why coworking areas get crowded during exams seasons.
Summer gives more appeal to coworking areas for the presence of air conditioning, especially in the governorate that recorded the highest temperatures nationwide during the summer of 2024.
Escaping boredom
It is a bit different for Noursien Emad, a high school student, for she feels more comfortable to study at home, yet she goes to coworking areas when she feels bored.
She says there is a big difference between studying at home and outside, “I like studying at home more, but I go to these spaces when I get bored”.
Mariam Wadeea, an English teacher and Noursien’s mother, says that at first, she thought coworking areas were places for entertainment, later on she realised that they’re for studying. However, she prefers home as it is quieter, and as for the costs, she says that they’re affordable compared to the services they provide.
Flexibility
Amira Omar, a science major third year high school student, believes that coworking areas help in developing flexibility skills of dealing with different personalities, due to the presence of many participants within those spaces.
As for Amira, she can study in both cases, but she is more encouraged to study in the coworking area where there are many colleagues of the same age in the place.
“In the beginning my family didn’t like me studying outside, but when they noticed how I became more productive they changed their opinion”, said Amira.
On the other hand, Neamatullah Ragab Abu Hajji, a social worker at Future Generation Schools, thinks that coworking areas idea is good and different for students, moreover, changing their places of studying makes them in a better mood, for sometimes studying gets more boring if they do it in the same places they’re used to, the thing that led them losing focus.
As for productivity, Nemaatullah says that it differs from one student to another according to their preferences; some students cannot focus unless they are in their own rooms sitting in the same position. From her point of view, she doesn’t like the idea of coworking areas and thinks they’re a waste of time, as committing to a certain number of hours forces the student to focus on the hours remaining and not on studying.
A quiet room at home is better
Magdy Mahrous Wahieb, a biology teacher at Al-Salam Private School in Akhmim, Sohag, thinks that studying outside home may comes in favour of students who are pressured by their families who barge repetitively into their rooms to make sure they’re studying, making them get distracted.
The teacher believes that the majority of students need supervision from their parents in order to become disciplined and committed, yet at the same time parents should provide their children with quiet places to study, which is better also than them staying outside all day resorting to eating junk food.
