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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A mark of excellence?
By Shaden ShehabFor many years and maybe more to come, having a son or daughter in Thanawiya Amma (secondary school certificate) means the declaration of a virtual state of emergency at home. It means sleepless nights, spending bundles of money on private tutoring, the discouragement of visitors and cutting television-viewing down to a minimum -- a state of pure panic and agony.
Adding insult to injury, many students who studied themselves to exhaustion in the hope of joining a "five-star" university college that requires top marks had their hopes dashed on the ground of reality. It is not that they did not get a high aggregate of marks, but because the definition of "high" became different in the just-ended academic year.
Although student enrollment seats were increased by about 22 per cent by the Supreme Universities Council, the marks required to join high-level universities also soared because of the large number of students obtaining more than 95 per cent of the total aggregate of marks.
Sixty-six students specialising in science and six in mathematics achieved results of more than 100 per cent. Students can achieve more than 100 per cent if they sit for and pass extra high-level examinations, which add a maximum of five marks to the overall percentage.
Moreover, 15,895 students specialising in science, 3,579 specialising in mathematics, and 945 in the arts, achieved results of more than 95 per cent.
The minimum marks required to join the Faculty of Medicine soared to 95.8 per cent, Pharmacology to 95.12 per cent, Dentistry to 95.02 per cent, Economics and Political Science to 94.39 per cent, Mass Communication to 94.2 per cent and Engineering to 89 per cent.
Out of 347,791 students enrolled in the third and final year of secondary school, 295,623, roughly 85 per cent, passed the examinations.
Students attaining less than 70 per cent will not find a place in universities. They will have to enroll at lower-level educational institutes.
Angry students and parents pointed accusing fingers at Education Minister Hussein Kamel Bahaeddin. "Cheating was a phenomenon this year and it unfairly equated students who studied hard with those who cheated their way through, strangely with their teachers' approval," said Awatef El-Banna, a housewife and a mother of a Thanawiya Amma student.
Shamel Khairi, the father of another student, said private tutoring was behind the astronomically high marks. "Those who paid more gained more marks, which would not have been the case had schools fulfilled their role of providing a proper education."
Others went as far as accusing Bahaeddin of deliberately attempting to embarrass Higher Education Minister Moufid Shehab by "exposing" his inability to provide these large numbers of students with places in universities. The reason, they alleged, is that Bahaeddin was bitter for being left in charge of school education only after losing the higher education portfolio to Shehab in 1997.
In statements to the press, Bahaeddin said that "it is only natural that students' marks improve. Why is it such a disaster that five per cent of students achieve results of more than 95 per cent? Egyptian students always obtain the best results in most other secondary school certificates, such as the I.G.C.S.E and the Arab certificates."
He also asserted that private tutoring was not the reason for the high marks. "Private tutoring cannot, alone, cause a student to excel, just like artificial breathing cannot cure a patient, but can only keep him alive."
On the accusations related to Shehab, Bahaeddin said: "Should I mark the examination papers myself in order not to be accused of pressuring Moufid Shehab?"
For his part, Shehab told Al-Ahram Weekly that he was surprised at the Thanawiya Amma results, especially the number of students attaining more than 95 per cent. "We have increased the number of university enrollment seats to accommodate 232,000 students, which is equal to 75 per cent of the students who passed, despite the fact that this increase will affect the university development programme."
Before 1994, the results of Thanawiya Amma students depended on examinations at the end of their third, and last, school year. If a student failed any of the courses, he or she had to re-sit for exams in all courses.
With the aim of upgrading secondary school education and giving students greater opportunity, a new Thanawiya Amma system was introduced in June 1994. The new system gives students several chances to improve their grades by spacing the secondary school certificate examinations over a two-year period, instead of one.
At the time, Bahaeddin explained that "it is not fair that a student's future be determined by one end-of-year examination. We had to change the system in order to have graduates who do not merely commit lessons to memory to pass an examination, but who are able to think on their own." The curriculum was also amended, with the bulk of courses spread over the two years.
The new system, however, resulted in a large number of students receiving very high grades, many with marks exceeding 100 per cent. In turn, this raised university enrollment levels and, consequently, the minimum university entrance marks rose dramatically.
In 1997, with parliament's approval, the cabinet reacted by ordering the cancellation of a complicated system for improving a student's grades. But this year's results show that the cancellation was not enough. A re-consideration of the entire secondary school educational system may be in order.
