Azhar student arrested for leaking Thanaweya Amma exams

CAIRO - 10 June 2018: Egyptian authorities arrested an academic student in Al-Azhar University over accusations of creating a Facebook page that facilitates cheating by leaking exams of Thanaweya Amma (secondary education or high schools) for money in al-Zaqaziq, Sharqia.

Zaqaziq Prosecution decided on Saturday to keep the suspect in detention for four days pending investigations, which was launched upon a complaint from a lawyer in the city.

The initial investigation conducted by the General Administration of the Information Technology, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, revealed that a Facebook page named “شاومنج” (Shawmeng), liked by more than 1,000 users, offered help to leak the exams for charging mobile credit.

The accused student, Ahmed A, E., is 19 years old and studies in the Faculty of Education, Al-Azhar University. During the initial probes, he denied all accusations.

In June 2015, almost all final exams of Thanaweya Amma were leaked on social media. A Facebook page, called Shawmeng, helps students cheat by leaking exams, claiming that they use this method to demand improving the living standards of low-income teachers, launching a “capabilities-based” education system, modernizing rural schools, and putting an end to labeling faculties as “top and common”.

To prevent such phenomenon, Egypt passed a law stipulating that students caught cheating or leaking information about their final or mid-term exams could face up to a year in prison and fines between LE 20,000 ($ 1,124) and LE 50,000.

In 2018, the Ministry of Higher Education decided not to leave soft copies of the tests on the ministry’s computers and database after printing them out. Over the past two years, many cases of exam leaks have been reported a few minutes after the exams start. The ministry launched an investigation into the leaks but revealed nothing since then.