Egypt’s Ministry of Education has decided that the June 19 Thanaweya Amma (high school exams) will be held online for all regular students, service sector students, and home-based students, Education Minister Tarek Shawky announced.
Shawky added, according to state-run newspaper Al-Ahram, that in order to ensure equal opportunity and access for all, the ministry will equip students with the appropriate materials to take their tests online at home, as well as open exam halls where students can come to take the test.
As for students repeating the year and students currently in hospitals or prisons, a final decision will be made an announced before the end of this year, he said.
This year, the Thanaweya Amma exams will operate under a new assessment system that the ministry announced in September, with the exam questions being written by professors from the National Center for Exams and Educational Evaluation.
The new system aims to create more equity by not allowing for fraud or diversion.
The exam questions are all multiple-choice and do not contain writing sections. There will be four different forms of the same exam, all of equal difficulty, and grading will be entirely electronic.
Students will have an opportunity to retake tests each year in August, with the main exam being administered in June. The test with the higher score will be accepted.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
