Education Ministry to finalize reforms plan in 2018

CAIRO – 10 September 2017: Minister of Education Tarek Shawki presented on Sunday the ministry’s plan to develop the education system in Egypt to the committee in charge at the parliament. The minister announced the plan in a press conference Tuesday.

The ministry aims to finalize the new system by October 2018. The system includes changing the Thanaweya Amma system which in turn requires the Supreme Council of Universities to change the admission requirements for each school.

Thanaweya Amma is the third and final year of high school which qualifies students for colleges. Students’ grades have been concentrated in final exams only, making their total score the only determinant for their admission in different colleges which set the minimum required scores without any admission tests or personal interviews.

The ministry plans to make students take multiple exams, while preserving the booklet format, implemented in the academic year 2016-2017, which had almost eradicated cheating, common in the former format based mainly on essay questions easily predicted.

That format required pre-dominantly memorization rather than comprehension of the curriculum, which had created a huge informal sector of private lessons taught by school teachers who often purposefully neglected their role in class in order to push students to take such lessons.

The booklet format contains only MCQs and short answer questions to be answered in one exam sheet, unlike the older format comprising an answer sheet in addition to the questions sheet.

Teachers of Thanaweya Amma would receive different training from the one delivered to teachers in primary and middle schools. What’s more, the contracts and administrative affairs of teachers would be restructured to improve their living and professional conditions.

The ministry is also working on preserving its financial resources by shifting into a digital format of the curriculum saving the costs of printing books. In addition, children of martyrs or inured officers would be exempted from tuition fees in public schools.