The results of high school exams are out but Fatah and Hamas are still studying the issues. Doaa El-Bey makes her way through testing times While military academy students were celebrating their graduation, thanaweya amma (high school certificate) graduates started their arduous search for a suitable college or academy. The graduation party of the students of the military academy was covered on the front pages of the official newspapers. Mohamed Barakat called July "the month of heroism because it witnessed the graduation of the best youth in Egypt who join the ranks of our armed forces every year." "The hearts and minds of President Mubarak and every Egyptian are full of love and appreciation for the graduates of the military, naval, air defence and police academies who protect Egypt and preserve its security," Barakat wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. The editorial of the daily newspaper Rose El-Youssef read that the historic parade at the beginning of the graduation displayed Egyptian military history which extends thousands of years and confirms its role in defending the state and people of Egypt. The newspaper seized that opportunity to greet the Egyptian armed forces, hail its performance and show appreciation "for those who fill us with confidence every year by training our future military generations." The announcement of the results of the thanaweya amma heralds the start of the marathon of thousands of school graduates in search of the college they seek, and more importantly, those which will accept them. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram focussed on the implications of the results. It regarded the increasing desire of students to join computer science colleges and academies as an important indication that reflects the desire of students and their parents to choose fields needed in the labour market. Another major development was the feverish rise this year in the total marks of students in the scientific section, which shows that people in Egypt have begun to realise the value of natural sciences -- physics, chemistry, medicine, biology, mathematics, electronics, and programming. That, according to the edit, is a good sign as it will qualify us to enter the rank of advanced nations. Meanwhile, the tendency towards applied sciences instead of humanitarian sciences, including law, history, philosophy, literature, religions and sociology, could be a dangerous sign because our society needs poets, writers, lawyers and philosophers exactly as it needs doctors, pharmacists, chemists and architects. Thus, serious consideration needs to be given to the education curricula of humanitarian sciences and training teachers to teach in a way that makes students interested in these sciences. In the weekly magazine Rose El-Youssef, Nada Abd Rabu commented on the fact that most of the top students are girls. The writer quoted a psychology professor who ascribed this phenomenon to the rise of feminist movements and influential feminist figures like Hoda Shaarawi who encouraged girls to work hard to improve their status in society. There are also family rules which do not allow girls to spend much time away from home. Thus, contrary to boys who spend long hours with their friends, girls have more time to study. Mohamed Amin questioned whether the supremacy of girls over boys is because girls are cleverer or because it goes with the trend "women first", which is being debated in parliament and in radio and television. He did not rule out intervention by the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Women to produce such a result. The results of the thanaweya amma, as Amin elaborated, is controlled by political and geographical factors. The top students should come from most of the governorates, especially the major ones. The top students should include Christians, graduates from Upper Egypt, as well as from government schools and, of course, girls. "How can we improve education or our future when we consider the geographical distribution and the wishes of the National Council for Women when we issue the results of thanaweya amma ?" Amin asked in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the Wafd opposition party. Magda Maurice wrote that the results of the thanaweya amma allowed the media, especially satellite channels, to show the struggles and success stories of many of the graduates. " Thanaweya amma is still the only transparent and fair exam in which there is no discrimination on the basis of class, status or religion. It is still the royal gate to higher education and the dream of low income families," Maurice wrote in Rose El-Youssef. However, Maurice called on the society to find better ways to deal with these "super students" and on the media to thoroughly cover their struggle and success stories. The death of Marwa El-Sherbini, the Egyptian woman who was stabbed to death by a Russian immigrant in a German court in the city of Dresden, still engaged the press. Maurice wrote that El-Sherbini behaved in a civilised manner when she resorted to the law after the immigrant labelled her a terrorist. When she won her right, the immigrant decided to kill her to prove that racism goes parallel with crime. The writer said we could have reacted in a more united manner to El-Sherbini's death by gathering signatures to show our utter rejection of racism from Germany or any other European state or by establishing a site on the Internet for the same purpose. "May god rest the soul of a courageous, civilised, Muslim woman who defended her right till her last breath," she concluded. Nabil Atta agreed with Maurice that El-Sherbini presented to the world a symbol of the Egyptian Muslim woman who refused to give up her right. He regarded the initiation of the investigations by the German government as a positive step, but the problem is in the result which will not compensate the Egyptian people for their loss, or compensate El-Sherbini's husband and son for the loss of a wife and mother. The only acceptable result, according to Atta, is in the "qisas" or fair punishment for El-Sherbini's killer and the policeman who shot her husband. "That is what we should ask the German authorities to do and that is what we should exert every effort to achieve," he underlined in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom.
