Egypt reduces core subjects for Thanaweya students, extends school week to 6 days

CAIRO – 14 August 2024: Minister of Education and Technical Education Mohamed Abdel Latif has announced an extension of the school week for students across various grades to six days, with five days dedicated to academic studies instead of the previous four, and one day allocated for activities.

These changes will come into effect at the onset of the new academic year 2024/2025, commencing on September 21.

During a press conference with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Wednesday, Abdel Latif unveiled significant modifications to the entire secondary education phase, including restructuring Thanaweya Amma (Grade 12 of the national high school system) across its three branches: science, mathematics, and literature.

Thanaweya Amma restructured

Of notable mention, the second foreign language, predominantly French or German, will transition into a pass-fail subject for all three branches instead of being a core subject previously.

Furthermore, geology for the science branch and psychology in the literature branch will be transformed into pass-fail subjects, while the mathematics branch will see the consolidation of pure and applied mathematics into a singular subject.

Under the new curriculum, students in the three branches will engage in five subjects in the upcoming school year instead of the previous seven, with Arabic and the first foreign language (typically English or French) being shared subjects.

Moreover, the science and mathematics branches will continue to include chemistry and physics, with the science branch also covering biology, the mathematics branch covering math, while the literature branch will continue to include history, geography, besides statistics as a newly introduced subject.

Secondary phase restructured

The minister also outlined various changes to the first and second years of secondary education (Grade 10 & 11), including the transition of the second foreign language into a pass-fail subject.

In the first secondary year, students will tackle six subjects in the upcoming year instead of the previous ten, with chemistry and physics amalgamated into a single subject named integrated science. Geography will be excluded in the first year and will be reintroduced as a specialty subject for the literature branch in the subsequent year.

In accordance with the revisions, core subjects for the first secondary year will encompass Arabic, the first foreign language, history, mathematics, science, philosophy, and logic, alongside religious studies and the second foreign language as pass-fail subjects.

The second secondary year will witness the integration of math realms into one subject, with students across all three branches delving into Arabic, the first foreign language, and mathematics.

Additionally, the science-oriented branch encompassing both science and math students, will delve into biology, chemistry, and physics in the upcoming academic year. However, they will transition to studying history instead of biology in the subsequent years.

In the upcoming academic year, the literature branch will engage with history, geography, and psychology.

Mitigating class density

During the press conference, the minister also revealed the ministry's strategy to address the longstanding crisis of high school class density in government schools, including transitioning secondary schools for the evening period.

This initiative aims to optimize the utilization of preparatory schools, which will also cater to primary schools during the morning hours.

Furthermore, the ministry plans to introduce the concept of portable classrooms, a practice employed in numerous countries globally. For instance, in Qalyoubia governorate, the implementation of portable classrooms reduced classroom density from 69 to 40, demonstrating a proactive approach to alleviate overcrowding in educational institutions, explained the minister.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of students undertake the Thanaweya Amma exams, striving to achieve top grades that will qualify them for their preferred colleges.

This year, a total of 726,648 students took the Thanaweya Amma exams, with 590,992 passing, according to recent data released by the ministry.

Abdel Latif took the oath before President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the minister of education and technical education early in July in the new government of Madbouly, prime minister since June 2018.