Back to the complete issue
Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Cheating scandal inadvertently sparks national dialogue over nature of exams in Egypt

The Interior Ministry arrested the administrators of three Facebook pages it accuses of leaking Thanaweya Aama certificate exams after the English exam was leaked on Tuesday. The move follows the arrest of 12 Education Ministry officials and the administrator of the Shou Ming Cheats Facebook page over the spate of leaks that led authorities to cancel the religious studies final exam. The issue has been dominating local media, prompting Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to suggest a policy to clampdown on online leaks was in the works. Why is this even important? MPs have already begun proposing changing the nature of standardized testing in Egypt as a result of the scandal. Some have suggested amending the nature of exams away from pure memorization of facts to testing comprehension of subject matter. Other MPs have suggested open book exams and even online exams, Youm7 reported. Has this finally dawned on them?

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.