Egypt’s Sisi urges promoting religious liberty, tolerance among students

CAIRO – 28 June 2020: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Sunday urged giving the highest priority to spreading awareness among students of the principles and instructions of religions, including freedom of belief, tolerance and acceptance of differences.

In a weekly meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli, Sisi also called for attaching importance to sports activities and physical health of students, within the framework of the state’s strategic approach to enhance the academic, cognitive and health aspects of Egyptian citizens.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Education Tarek Shawki.

This comes while the secondary schools’ final exams (Thanaweya Amma) for the academic year 2019/2020 kicked off on June 21 nationwide with 652,289 students taking the Arab Language exam at 56,591 exam classrooms.

The education minister has earlier displayed the state’s plan to protect them from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The ministry said in a statement it will offer 16,575 thermometers, 34,037,829 face masks, 6,411,804 gloves and 6,000 sanitizers to secure students against the virus.

Students will enter their exam halls in a line, while following the two-meter social distancing rules, and will have their temperature measured before they enter.

Before exams start, all exam halls will be deeply sterilized on a daily basis, the ministry said.

Before entering their secondary halls, exam proctors have to check each of the students and make sure that they are in a good health and that they have sterilized their hands and put on the masks.

In case proctors think a student might have developed some symptoms, an ambulance vehicle would transfer the student to the specialized hospital.

In a press conference, Shawki said the state is keen to sterilize schools during the upcoming tests, to avoid the spread of the deadly virus.

Preventive measures will be considered during the tests including maintaining social distancing, he noted. Students also had the option to postpone their exams to the coming year, he added.