6yr girl saved LE 100 to sue Egypt's Ministry of Education; she wins the case

CAIRO – 9 October 2021: A 6-year-old girl won a legal case against the Egyptian Ministry of Education after a primary school in Beheira governorate rejected her enrollment in the second grade, Akhbar El You newspaper reported on Saturday.

 

The presiding judge of the Alexandria Administrative Court Mohamed Abdel-Wahab Khafagy ordered awarding the little girl, whose initials of her name is H.H.S, LE 3,000 in compensation for the moral damages she has suffered from after she was deprived of being a second-grade student by Abu El Matamir school although she passed the first grade.

 

“I do love to learn and I’m good at [my studies] at the school. Also, I can draw very well, and these are my drawings. I was 5 years and several months old [at that time] and passed grade 1 at my school of Wadi El Natroun and got ranked number 1 [among my colleagues].

 

“But my father transported our residency to Abu El Matamir [village]. There was one of my neighbors accompanied me in the same village. Her father was a senior official who  managed to enroll her in a school close to her house, but the principal of the Abu al-Matamir school told me ]you are too young [to be in grade2] and must re-join grade1 f, or you have to go to Wadi al-Natrun every day.’  That is why I told my dad that we have to go to the judge.”

 

Then, the presiding judge asked her “what did make you wait for a whole year to complain to force the school to enroll you in second grade?”  She replied “I did not want to bear my dad the expenses of the case. He is a farmer and a person who is not earning too much.  But I, Mr. judge, saved 100 Egyptian pounds from my pocket money for the whole year and this forced me to repeat studies of grade 1.”

 

 “When the second year ended, I told my dad ‘let’s go to the judge,'” H.H.S said.

 

After listening to her complaint, the judge ordered that the Ministry of Education has to pay the little girl LE 3,000 in moral compensation. The judge also said his verdict is unchallengeable.

 

“Enforcing the girl to re-enroll her in the first grade of the primary school despite her success in the previous year contradicts the modern scientific basics[…] moving from one educational stage to another must be based on the principle of merit and excellence and not on the principle of the student’s age,” the judge said.

 

"I will take only 100 pounds. My dad, take the rest," she replied with a feeling of happiness.