Thanaweya Amma exams kick off Sunday, applying new system

CAIRO - 4 June 2017: Almost 600,000 students started the national high school Thanaweya Amma exams Sunday, applying the newly introduced booklet system that aims to eliminate the risk of exams leaks.

Students are set to take the Arabic language and religion exams Sunday.

The Education Ministry denied Saturday allegations about leaking the Arabic test of Thanweya Amma on social media, stating that the test is highly secured by security apparatuses.

“There is no way for leaking the exam,” head of high school exams’ department Reda Hegazy stated.

Meanwhile, the Facebook page Chao Ming, which has been leaking the exams the past two years, had announced that this year’s tests would be sent on whatsapp to anyone who subscribed to the service. The Arabic exam was reportedly leaked Saturday evening.

The ministry had been countering leaking high school exams for two years through Facebook pages, the most prominent of which has been “Chao Ming’s Cheats for High School Exams.”

In January 2017, the ministry introduced the new booklet system, which should reduce errors in the correction process and eliminate exam leaks; students are required to answer in the same test sheet and not in a separate answer sheet as the previous system.

A presidential decree issued in 2015 made leaking exams a criminal offense, leading to a maximum of one year in prison an a fine between LE 20,000 and LE 50,000.