CAIRO -

Social networking sites in Egypt witnessed controversy after the Ministry of Education announced that it granted the final degree in Arabic to more than 92,000 students in the second year of secondary school, after they failed to take the exam electronically via tablets due to a technical malfunction.

Since the Minister of Education, Tariq Shawky, decided to use tablets, he has been receiving sharp criticism confirming that the decision is not serious, because the infrastructure and technology in schools do not allow this, and some schools suffer from a shortage of seats, not to mention the Internet, but the minister insisted on his decision despite many failures. In this regard.

The ministry announced that investigations had proven a delay in the response of the main databases, due to the occurrence of many modifications in the student's data received from the educational administrations, which took place at the same time, which caused a disruption in the examinations' access to the schools' servers.

The ministry explained that the person responsible for this technical error was investigated and the immediate dealing was technical by increasing the capacity and speed of the database servers, as well as improving their performance to ensure that this delay does not occur again.

A malfunction affects the "system" in the Arabic language exam for the second grade of secondary school and prevents students from performing it.. and the Ministry grants them the full degree pic.twitter.com/pNXO7rfjpv

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) May 14, 2022

Social media controversy

The final degree decision sparked controversy on the communication sites about the validity of the decision and the entitlement of students who were unable to take the exam to obtain these grades, in return for the rest of the students receiving a real estimate for their answers.

Some considered that the students’ obtaining the full mark was unfair to the outstanding student who might have made a mistake in a question and did not obtain the final grade, while an average or weak student would not have achieved half of it had it not been for the technical failure.

Others also talked about the injustice suffered by some students who continued to try to reach the exam and actually succeeded, but after a long time they could not complete it, while their colleagues who did not even try to take the exam got the final grade.

In search of justice, some demanded a re-exam at a later time, whether for those who could not reach it or those who reached it late, while some demanded the easy solution, which is to give full marks to all students without exception or discrimination.

Dr. Kamal Moghith, an expert at the National Center for Educational Research, criticized the Ministry of Education and demanded it, in a post on his Facebook page, to clearly announce the failure of the tablet idea.

The experience of the tablet has proven to be a failure over the course of how many years?

What is the idea that a student in System Reality will be tested again and deprive him of the principle of equal opportunities.. Why do you let a student study hard and qualify herself for a large college to enter and focus on the exam, will it open or not?# Primary_Secondary

— Doaa Seleat (@doaaseleat) May 14, 2022

This is a systematic failure and destruction of education for four consecutive years... This is a waste of public money under the name of the tablet system, which has well-deservedly proven its failure... O country officials.. Honorable members of the People's Assembly, where are you from this farce... Aren't you a rational man?????

— Abear Ahmed (@Abear71771012) May 14, 2022

Parliamentary anger

In this context, the head of the Parliamentary Committee of the Al-Nour Party, Ahmed Khalil Khairallah, submitted an urgent statement to the Speaker of the Council directed to the Minister of Education.

In his statement, Khairallah said that granting full grades without exams is strange to the education system, and contradicts the statements of the Minister of Education, who always calls on parents to urge their children to learn and acquire skills without looking at grades, noting that granting students full grades without an exam is not It must pass without a serious pause to find out its logical reasons, and their compatibility with educational systems and methods.

Khairallah stated that the minister had announced before the beginning of the exams that the paper-based examination system was an alternative to electronic exams, and that the reason for the students’ examination in paper was the inability of some of them to take the exam electronically. electronically?"

recurring crisis

The failure of students to pass the exams was repeated on more than one occasion, the most famous of which was what happened last year, when students of the second year of secondary school complained about the same matter, as the “system” broke down and some of them were unable to take the Arabic language exam through the ministry’s tablets. These complaints were repeated in A number of schools in Cairo, Giza, Gharbia and other governorates, where the system was disrupted in some schools, and therefore some students were unable to take the exam.

The Egyptian Minister of Education, Tariq Shawky, announced, at the time, that all those who could not reach the “system” of exams would be considered successful in the subject, knowing that the ministry estimated these at 10% of first-year secondary students, and published on his personal page a long post in which he talked about what he called. Reflections and messages for the first year secondary exam on Saturday, February 27 (February) 2021.”

The Egyptian Minister of Education is constantly criticized, whether by parents or those interested in education in Egypt, due to a number of issues related to the development of education, the latest of which was criticism due to the difficulty of the fourth grade curriculum.

The minister's statements also anger the pioneers of social networking sites with their disregard for education crises, such as the density of classes, the lack of teachers and the new systems for school examinations.

Today, I was put under psychological pressure. It is not normal for a 16-year-old to be subjected to him. You imagine that you will remain sitting in the committee and see your colleagues being tested and you do not know how to be afraid. Is it normal for me to ask the observer? Why? This is my future, #Tareq_Shawky

— Abd Alkarem Ehap (@AlkaremEhap) February 27, 2021