CAIRO: Education Minister Yosry El-Gamal announced a "85.9 percent success rate in assessment exams sat by teachers in August, while lobby group Teachers Without a Union (TWU) have renewed their opposition to the exams. El-Gamal told the MENA news agency Saturday that 850,000 teachers sat the exam, and that of this number 10.8 percent passed two sections of the exam and 2.4 percent one section. Less than 1 percent of those who sat the exam failed, according to the education minister. While teachers who sat the assessment exam were, from Sunday, able to access their individual result online via the MOE's website, a breakdown of the results according to governorate or to school has not been made accessible to everyone online. The newly-created Teachers' Academy will now notify teachers who passed the exam of the level they will be assigned to, El-Gamal said. Teachers who failed on this occasion will receive training courses, after which they will have the opportunity to re-sit the exam next August. The implementation of the second stage of the teachers' assessment exams will see pay increases of between 50 percent and 150 percent, according to the education minister. The percentage increase received will be dictated by which of the five levels teachers are assigned to. Teachers assigned to the first, or "teacher level, will receive a 50 percent increase, with incremental increases of 75 percent, 100 percent, 125 percent and finally 150 percent, received by those assigned to the rank of "senior teacher. According to El-Gamal, all teachers - regardless of whether they sat the assessment exam or not - will receive a 50 percent pay increase. TWU have consistently opposed the assessment exams which they label "humiliating. The group is calling for an across the board and unconditional minimum wage of LE 1,000. Naim Ramadan, a teacher from Dessouq, Kafr El-Sheikh and a member of TWU, told Daily News Egypt that the success rate announced by El-Gamal is not an accurate reflection of teachers' performance in the exams. "The ministry passed this large number of teachers because it wants them to accept the principle of assessment exams, Ramadan said. Some of the teachers who sat the examinations told Daily News Egypt in August the questions they asked were unrelated to their discipline and did not properly assess teaching ability. In addition, they say that the exams were conducted in a chaotic atmosphere, disrupted by cheating and protests carried out by those opposed to the exams. Teachers staged a protest outside the Teachers' Syndicate in August against the exams, and against the perceived failure of the state-controlled syndicate to adequately represent their interests. Ramadan says that TWU are currently preparing a response to the ministry's announcement of results. TWU recently announced that it will hold a conference in November to discuss assessment exams and teachers' demand for a minimum wage, amongst other issues.
