CAIRO: Teachers continued to voice their complaints through the second day of the teachers' assessment exam stipulated by the Education Ministry. Teachers expressed their feelings of humiliation and outrage at the irrelevant questions, the lack of training and the ill treatment. Omaima Abdel Hamid, a primary school science teacher who sat the three-hour exam, told Daily News Egypt that "45 minutes of the allocated time were wasted in distributing the papers and dealing with problems like shortages in answer sheets. "The exam was too difficult, and it needed a high level of concentration which was hard to achieve due to the loud objections of colleagues, added Abdel Hamid, who blamed the supervisors for not providing a suitable atmosphere for the teachers to be able to focus. Despite the many objections, teachers were pressured to take the exam because a promotion and a much-needed raise in salaries are at stake. "I was forced to take the exam despite the humiliation because I need the raise, admits Omaima. A teacher from Helwan revealed the shocking fact that in an incident similar to the cheating scandal of the thanawiya amma exams, this exam was photographed with a cell phone camera during the chaos at Ain Shams University, which hosted the first exam day. It was then leaked to some of the teachers in Helwan who sat the exam on the next day. Iman Helmy, who has been teaching for 23 years, told Daily News Egypt that she had been demoted before the exams in order to be judged by her score, not her years of experience and rank. According to Helmy many questions were unrelated to teachers' specializations with Arabic language teachers, for instance, being quizzed on science-related issues. She added that the purpose of these exams is to limit the number of teachers receiving the promised teachers' raise due to a budget deficiency. Instead of wasting the money on answer sheets and supervisors, they could have given it to the poor teachers. Helmy also refutes the allegations of Hassan El Beblawy, the Minister of Education's media advisor, who claimed that teachers were given preparatory courses before the exams and insists that the only courses she received were irrelevant computer courses. Hassan Mohamed, leader of the Teachers without a Syndicate Movement, who refused to take the exam because of lack of preparation, described the scene in Alexandria. Only 10 percent of the teachers attended the exam and the rest were assembling and yelling with slogans calling for a better syndicate, he told Daily News Egypt. In Helwan many complained of the inhumane conditions to which they were subjected starting from the long walk to the hall which had no ventilation to the disrespectful treatment of exam supervisors. A primary school teacher who attended the exam yesterday told Daily News Egypt, they kept yelling at us as if we were students and even threatened to throw some teachers out of the hall. The exams have taken an emotional toll on teachers who doubt that they will be able to perform their duties properly as school approaches. After 15 years of teaching, how can I possibly face my students and their parents if I fail this exam, Abdel Hamid said. Teachers are planning another protest in front of the Ministry of Education this Thursday. They guarantee that it will be more organized than the previous protest and that it will enable them to better negotiate for their rights.
