Education wins lion's share of rumors in 2018: Cabinet

CAIRO - 2 January 2018: Concluding 2018, Cabinet's media center issued an information report on rumors attempting to fail the state's constructive efforts throughout the year, revealing that education was the most targeted by rumors, obviously due to the radical changes it is undergoing under the new system.

According to the official infographics, the education sector was targeted by 21.5 percent of rumors in 2018, followed by the ration sector that got 17 percent of the rumors, while 15.3 percent went to the economy sector.



Rumors included the cancellation of the new education system, the abolition of the booklet system in the secondary school examinations, and the reduction of teachers' salaries to reduce expenses in the new system, the media center said.

The rumors also included collecting daily fees from students, and that students would have to bear the cost of their exams' papers.

In the economic sector, the most remarkable rumors included selling 49 percent of the Suez Canal Economic Zone to an Arab country, imposing taxes on the Egyptians' deposits in banks, instructing banks to hold depositors' money in return for real estate tax, and transferring paper currency to coins, the center said.

Meanwhile, the rumors that circulated in the health sector included imposing a fine of LE 2,500 ($140.5) on those who failed to participate in the national anti-hepatitis C "100 Million Seha (Health)" campaign, the councils said. They also included excluding those who do not have health insurance from Hepatitis C free treatment.



In July 2018, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi warned against false news clarifying that more than 21,000 rumors have been propagated over a period of three months. The president also asked the citizens to be cautious of calls that inherently aim at the collapse of the Egyptian state.

In September, the Ministry of Supply and Internal and Domestic Trade denied the news saying that citizens who get subsidized bread worth LE 0.05 per loaf would not be able to get their daily share if they did not request it on daily basis, the Cabinet's media center reported.

The ministry affirmed that the citizens’ share of bread has not been changed, saying that if a citizen does not spend his share, it will be converted to points that the ministry is obliged to give to citizens on a monthly basis.

The ministry also affirmed the continuous existence of monitoring campaigns in all bakeries nationwide to make sure they give citizens their daily share of bread for LE 0.05 per loaf.

In July 2017, the government halted flour subsidies, which was effective as of August 2017, in an effort to reduce wheat imports by 10 percent. The move also aimed to avoid smuggling flour outside the subsidies system.

While the ministry is selling each loaf of bread at LE 0.05, it reportedly costs the state between LE 0.55 to LE 0.60, calculating the production cost of bread endured by the bakeries.

Cabinet denies false news directly affecting people

CAIRO – 10 September 2018: Egypt’s Cabinet denied a number of rumors in various realms, which had directly affected people’s lives over the last five days ending Sunday.