CAIRO: A new thanawiya amma (national high school certificate) system will be implemented starting the 2010-2011 academic year, said Education Minister Youssry El-Gamal. In a meeting with the Shoura Council's education committee, the minister outlined the new system, where 50 percent of the grade will be based on the student's activities and continuous assessment and only 50 percent on final exams. The move may signal the end of a controversial system where the future of high school students depends entirely on final exams, notorious for their difficulty. The new system will include two types of curricula. The first comprises of core subjects obligatory for all students, and whose grade will be based on a single exam at the end of the academic year. The second is made up of electives students will choose according to their interests and what they plan to major in at university. The final grade for these subjects depends on a final exam at the students' own school, as well as an evaluation of their performance throughout the year. Students will also be required to take standardized entry tests to gain acceptance into their field of choice at public universities. "We are planning to start executing this new system on the high school [graduating] class of 2013 who will enter high school in 2010, said Farid Abdel Samei, media advisor at the education ministry. From now until 2010, the ministry plans to provide training to teachers and school administrators to familiarize them with the new system and make the necessary changes to the existing curricula. Once it is implemented, students' thanawiya amma score will not be the only determining factor of their eligibility to join the faculty of their choice. This will relieve some of the "thanawiya amma pressure, said El-Gamal. Students in Egypt are generally brought up to fear thannawiya amma and are faced with tremendous social pressure to perform well during the two-year program. Both students and parents fret about it starting from primary school. Moreover, with the new system requiring year-round evaluations, students will now have to go to school and not depend completely on private tutoring, which has become an unofficial requirement for earning the feared certificate. "School is no more than a medium through which you register for the exams, one parent of a thanawiya amma student previously told Daily News Egypt. "But sometimes they call the students and tell them to come and fill the classrooms during ministry inspections, she added. There are two divisions within thanawiya amma: arts and sciences. Fatma El Hout, principal of Sheraton Heliopolis Language School, said that the number of students wanting to join the arts division is much higher than those wanting to join the sciences section because the chances of getting a better grade are higher. "The main concern of any thanawiya amma student now is the grade not the education, she said.
