The Ministry of Education arrested a group of 15 Thanaweya Amma secondary students on accusations of leaking philosophy, geology, and statics exams, according to a statement released by the ministry on Sunday. The exam and answers were leaked during the time of the exams through social media platforms, while some students secretly took their mobiles into the exam rooms to write the answers. The ministry banned the students from continuing taking the exams and will refer them to the relevant authorities for legal procedures. The students were identified as coming from Cairo and Egypt's Daqahliya governorate in the Nile Delta, according to the ministry's statement. The Thanaweya Amma exam season ended on Sunday after three weeks of more than 500,000 students from different governorates taking the exams. The Thanaweya Amma is Egypt's secondary school certificate, which is a prerequisite to apply for any universities or higher education institutions. Throughout the exam season, many exams were leaked, despite the ministry's efforts to secure them. In 2017, Egypt's Education Minister Tarek Shawky announced that a new system will replace the traditional Thanaweya Amma system in the 2018/19 academic year. The new system will cancel the scoring system of calculating total grades and switch to a grade point average (GPA). The proposed system is yet to be discussed in the parliament; however, several lawmakers in the education committee have expressed concerns regarding the new system proposed by the minister.
