Egyptian students take high school exams in bubble sheets for first time

CAIRO – 10 July 2021: High school exams marathon started across Egypt Saturday, using the new system of bubble sheet for the first time.

Amidst heightened precautionary measures due to the fear of spread of COVID-19 virus, a total of 393 thousand students took their first test of Arabic language.

The students were handed the questions booklet and a bubble sheet with multiple choice questions, where they are allowed to fill in their answers using a pencil first, and then when they are sure about the answers, they can shade the answers using a pen.

The new testing system is available in paper-based sheets or electronically through tablets, where students answer the exams in both ways to guarantee they do not encounter any problems.

However, the Ministry of Education said that using the tablets will be used by the ministry as a reference if the computers fail to recognize an answer, meaning that the students can answer in both.

The new testing system is deemed as a revolutionary change in the old testing system of high school, where fear pre-occupies both students and parents of not collecting high grades to match certain colleges.

The High School (or Thanaweya Amma) testing decides which colleges, universities across Egypt will the students be admitted, according to their grades.  

The ministry Students taking the exams are banned from downloading any applications on the tablets or hacking them. In case this happened, the tablets will be collected and reports will filed with the incident.

Cheating and leaking dilemma

Over the past years, leaking high school exam questions had always been an annual ordeal the ministry used to struggle to deal with.  

With the new testing system, the ministry has promised to combat such acts or attempts to tamper with the tablets or leak exams.

A student in Gharbia governorate was determined to have leaked the Arabic language exam Saturday via cheating pages on Faceook.

“The student in Gharbiya who photographed the exam paper and leaked it is arrested,” said Minister Shawky, adding that it is useless to leak exams because there are many versions of the exam with different order of questions.

According to the law, whoever prints, publishes, broadcasts, or promotes by any means the examination questions and answers with the intent of cheating or disturbing the general order of the testing shall be punished by imprisonment of at least two years and not exceeding 7 years.

He shall also be liable to a fine of no less than L.E. 100,000 and not more than L.E. 200,000.  

“This educational year in Egypt is different, as we have made tremendous effort since last October amid COVID crisis, trying to develop technical and general education,” Minister Tariq Shawky said in TV statements.

He explained that the exams will be graded electronically, to make sure there are no human errors, and that employees will be available at centers for data entry.