The education ministry's new electronic platform experienced a technical failure on the first day of the final exams of the first-year secondary school students. About 650,000 students were taking the exam on Sunday across the country. Students had difficulties in accessing the electronic exam platform. Several schools in Qaliubiya governorate confirmed that the student code did not work and that the system had failed. A large number of parents in the governorates of Cairo and Giza complained about the system failure in their schools as well, which pushed schools to turn the examinations into paper exams. Exams for the second semester for the first-year secondary schools 2018/19, were launched on Sunday morning, beginning with the Arabic language test. The exams are being held over two periods where the morning one includes students of public schools, services, houses, prisons and hospitals, while the second period includes students of private schools. The ministry of education initiated the new secondary school test system for the first time in Egypt. According to the new system, students would take exams online using tablets and SIM cards provided by the ministry free of charge. In March, the system also failed in the experimental trial in all governorates. At that time, the Minister of Education, Tarek Shawky, justified the technical problem due to increased visits to the electronic exam platform. He said that over 2 million people visited the new system despite the fact that it is designed to only accommodate 600,000 students. On his personal Facebook page, Shawky vowed to overcome "the expected challenges" before the end of the week (two months ago), but it seems not to have been solved until now.
