CAIRO — Inside a hall at the Military Academy, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sat surrounded by a number of military leaders as young men and women in uniform took turns standing in front of the head of power, to be in front of the last station for qualifying tests to join jobs affiliated with the state's administrative apparatus.

A scene that is a precedent in the history of the exercise of presidential functions in the country, as for the first time an Egyptian president supervised civilian job tests, as government appointments were made within the framework of civilian work departments without the intervention of the head of authority or under military supervision.

According to a presidential statement issued last Monday, the tests conducted for a number of applicants for the positions of teachers in the Ministry of Education, were held in cooperation with the Egyptian Military Academy in the presence of the ministers of defense and education.

El-Sisi held a dialogue with the testers to get their opinions and ideas on the jobs they applied for, and the ongoing efforts to achieve development in the state sectors, stressing the authority's keenness to follow the highest scientific and technical standards to select the best human elements for public jobs.

According to the Civil Service Law enacted in 2016, applicants for a job in the administrative apparatus of government must pass tests before being accepted and appointed.

The Ministry of Education announced a competition to appoint 30,150 teachers as part of a government plan to contract with 5,27 teachers over <> years, and last January, the Minister of Education announced that the Central Agency for Organization and Administration had finished testing about <>,<> applicants for the job "lacking military education training to start work," without explaining the nature of that training.

Welcome to militarism

In a very similar scene, Sisi attended the tests of applicants for jobs in the Ministry of Transport last February, but then Transport Minister Kamel al-Wazir confirmed that things were done without prior arrangement, as Sisi happened to be inside the Military Academy at the time of the exams.

According to the minister's assertion – in televised statements – Sisi suddenly asked to attend the final exams in order to check on the progress of work according to his directives for the selection of the most efficient advanced elements.

He explained that technical tests were conducted for the new employees of the Ministry of Transport, and at a later stage, they were subjected to medical and psychological tests at the Military Academy, and then they received a 6-month training course at the Military College of Technology, to ensure the weight of their expertise at several levels such as technology and national security.

In response to concerns about the militarization of the civilian sectors by following this approach with all subsequent appointments, the Minister of Transport said, "Militarization is welcome if the selection of employees will be in this way," adding, "What is wrong with teaching applicants security in order to protect them and protect them from evils? We aim to recruit competent national staff. Personally, I conducted investigations and examinations before joining the military academy."

Kamel al-Wazir is one of the military commanders who have been granted a civilian job, as he was promoted in March 2019 to the rank of lieutenant general and appointed Minister of Transport, and 5 other ministers hold military ranks, in addition to 20 army and police generals who assume the position of governor out of 27 governors.

Tightness of control

The Egyptian president has attended several times the admission tests for students of the Military Academy, the entity that includes the war, air, navy, air defense and military technology colleges, which has recently become a venue for receiving civilian job tests.

Since taking office, Sisi has also been keen to attend the graduation ceremonies of military academy students, as well as graduation ceremonies at the police academy.

Last July, a presidential decree was issued to grant graduates of the Military Academy faculties degrees from civilian universities, according to which graduates of the Military and Naval Colleges receive a bachelor's degree in political science, graduates of the Air Defense College receive a bachelor's degree in communications engineering, and graduates of the Air Academy have a bachelor's degree in business administration, computers and information.

This then opened the door to fears of further military control over the functions of the state administrative sector, which is usually occupied by graduates of civilian educational institutions.

There is no recent count of the number of employees in the state's administrative sector, as the last official census announced by the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics was in 2017, where their number reached about 5 million employees.

What is happening inside the academy?

There is no official explanation of the details of the training that applicants receive for civilian positions within the military academy, nor the reason for choosing a military entity to provide training in the presence of a civilian alternative, namely the Central Agency for Organization and Administration (CAOA), which is authorized to conduct the necessary tests for employees of the state's administrative sector.

During his program broadcast on Sada al-Balad satellite channel, Ahmed Moussa, a journalist close to the authority, said that applicants for jobs in the transport sector were qualified at the same level as those enrolled in military and police colleges during the six-month training course.

Security investigations are conducted by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) on these applicants, he said, "which ensures that the employee belongs to Egypt and not to any other party".

In July 2021, Egypt's parliament approved a law allowing for the dismissal of employees in the administrative sector if serious evidence against the country's national security is proven.

For his part, Dr. Mohamed Fathallah, an expert at the National Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation, said that the presence of the President of the Republic in the exams of applicants for jobs in the education sector is a reassuring scene, as he confirms that the selection of new employees was done fairly away from mediation and favoritism.

He said – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the supervision of the Presidency of the Republic on the tests gives an opportunity for those excluded from the new jobs the possibility of resorting to the Office of Presidential Complaints for grievance and ensure consideration of their grievance.

Regarding the nature of the teachers' tests that were conducted before the military academy cooperated in this regard, Fathallah said that the Central Agency for Organization and Administration supervises these tests, which are at several levels, including educational and specialized, as well as personal abilities.

In the same context, columnist Moanes Zuhairi praised the conduct of tests for new teachers within a military institution.

He said – in a Facebook post – that the foundation of human beings on the approach of patriotism rooted in the doctrine of the Egyptian military is the real choice towards building the doctrine of new generations of teachers who in turn take responsibility for raising students on the concepts of patriotism and discipline.

Zuhairy has an ambitious optimistic outlook on the new generations who will graduate from what he called "batches of teachers who graduated from the Egyptian Military Academy," who will build and manage state buildings and facilities in the new republic.

Madness rules the city!
After attending the admission tests for army and police students, transport employees,
and the militarization of many sectors of the state, it was the
turn of teachers
to hold tests for them at the Military Academy!

So that you know that the failure that hits all sectors of the state has its real
causes, a trivial lost administration that does not understand in ... pic.twitter.com/VUKWCz94gR

— Osama Rushdie (@OsamaRushdi) April 3, 2023

Destruction of morale

From a different angle, the director of the International Center for Development and Strategic Studies, Dr. Mustafa Youssef, saw the intervention of the presidency and the army institutions to supervise civilian job tests as "a continuation of the current practices of the authority in militarizing all joints of the state."

He added – in a statement to Al Jazeera Net – that Sisi's attendance of such tests is a message to his supporters of the army generals that his rule is optimal for the military at the expense of civilians.

Regarding the repercussions of the matter, Youssef stressed that it destroys the morale of all employees of government departments, and threatens to drain minds to search for a job opportunity and a decent life away from the atmosphere of militarization that has come to dominate their homeland.

He criticized the army's incursion into civilian life, especially economically, which will inevitably distract it from performing its primary task of protecting borders and developing defense industries.