, and now is the time for the final exams to start. More than 18 million students started their finals last week, much to the concern of many families due to worries over the lack of proper education as a result of the country's political condition, the shortening of the second semester that lasted for only six weeks, and the cancellation of large chunks of the school curriculum. The second semester of this academic year started in March, one month later than scheduled, and it has also ended almost one month earlier than scheduled. Since the Ministry of Education announced the bringing forward of the final exams, parents have been complaining about the lack of organisation as they don't know the reasons for the decision, whether it was due to security reasons as some officials stated or to the upcoming presidential elections. Many students and their parents are furious at the bringing forward of the exams, scheduled for the beginning of May instead of 20 May. Some parents have expressed worries about their children passing their exams, saying that the decision to change the dates has put students in a dilemma and shown that the government is more interested in security than education. Mohamed Afifi, the father of three children, said his children would not have enough time to prepare for their exams. “The second term started in March, nearly a month behind schedule. The term ended almost three weeks early, and the early exams will harm the students' academic level,” he said. “Everyone is worried. We don't know what will happen to our children or whether they will pass their exams.” Minister of Education Mahmoud Abul-Nasr dismissed these fears and stated that the ministry would omit certain topics from the exams. The thanaweya amma secondary school exam has been rescheduled for 7 June and will end on 2 July instead of 29 June. According to Abul-Nasr, the ministry has signed an agreement with the ministries of education and defence to secure the question papers for the thanaweya amma exams. “The exam papers will be transferred to remote governorates by military planes. This is a procedure that must be taken due to the exceptional circumstances the country is going through,” he said. “There will be a central operations unit at the ministry to follow up on the exam process. Any violations committed will be reported immediately. There is no need to panic as everything is under control.” Ahmed Helmi, official spokesman to the Ministry of Education, stated that students and parents should not worry, as the ministry was simply acting in the light of the circumstances the country was going through. “The final year exams will now only cover the parts of the curriculum that have been taught according to the original schedule,” he said. “A special committee has been formed to decide which parts of the curriculum should be cancelled in order not to affect the content presented to the students. The important thing is that students do not suffer as a result of any gap between what they have studied this year and what they will need to study next year,” he said. Nevertheless, confusion prevails among the parents of many students. “Everyone is scared. We don't know what will happen to our children. Each year the school year ends abruptly, we and our children suffer. Students are academically weak, and teachers are not teaching properly. They have no time, as they want to finish. So they leave many parts of the curriculum unexplained. They just skip them and ask children to read the skipped parts at home. This is ridiculous,” said Rabab Al-Mokkadem, the mother of three children, in response to reports of the bringing forward of the final year exams. Meanwhile, many parents have also expressed their worries about the quality of education their children are receiving at school, claiming that teachers did not have enough time to finish the curriculum. Hala Hani, the mother of two children, said that “the teachers were unable to explain the curriculum properly to students. My older daughter will be promoted to year eight, but the school year is always being interrupted and is never completed or ended properly.” With the end of the academic year, parents are anxious about their children's grades for the coming school year. Many parents pointed out that each year there is a new cause to worry. Over the last three years, it has been the state of instability in the country, but the year before that it was swine flu and in the one before last it was bird flu. “We are worried about our children's future. We don't know what will happen next year. Will the coming academic year be interrupted due to the coronavirus? The students are becoming the government's scapegoats,” said Iman Mohamed, an accountant and the mother of two children. In response to the parents' worries, Helmi said that the fears were groundless. Education was a national security issue, he said, and topped the government's agenda as a way of bringing about a better future. “The teachers have exerted their utmost efforts to explain the curriculum to students. The cancelled parts will not affect coming years. Why do parents claim that students are not properly taught when every year we see better students,” he asked. “Basic education in this country is good and has not been affected by what has been happening. We have not jeopardised our students and their future,” he added. Sociologist Ahmed Zayed does not agree, and he points out that since the advent of bird flu in the country in 2006 the educational process has been severely affected. “The country has suffered through recent years from low-quality education, and this has taken its toll on performance in many areas, threatening the future of a country that suffers from widespread unemployment and skilled labour and competent professional shortages,” he said. Egypt has more than 18 million students in pre-university education and 2.2 million in the universities. “But employers will complain in the future, once these students are on the labour market, that their knowledge and skills are below average. This is the result of years of under-funding in the educational system,” Zayed argued, adding that all this would take its toll on economic performance in the future. Hossam Al-Saedi, an engineer, has a sixth-grade student that he used to be proud of. But now he complains that the educational system is deteriorating, affecting his child's education. “My son used to be bright and witty, and I had hoped that school would make him better. But instead it has ruined his educational level. Due to the successive incomplete school years, he has become used to long holidays that interrupt the academic year. My boy now does not like school and does not like studying,” Al-Saedi said. In the 2013-2014 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Egypt fell back to 118th position out of 148 countries, from 107th in 2012-2013 out of 144 countries, keeping it towards the bottom of the index. The deterioration in this year's ranking has been attributed to problems in education. Primary education has slipped in quality, the report said, adding that “efficiency enhancers” in primary education appeared to be “misaligned with the requirements of a competitive economy.” There was a pressing need to revisit the mathematics and science curricula, improve the quality of management and Internet access in schools and invest in the high-quality specialised training of staff at the business level, it said. According to Zayed, such deterioration is the result of the circumstances the country has been going through for several years. “The only way to solve the problem of education is for all concerned, the officials and the authorities, to pay proper attention to the country's educational process instead of neglecting it all the time,” he said.
