Youth Conference focuses on education reform and the end of rote memorization: The latest iteration of the Youth Conference, which took place at Cairo University, saw a detailed discussion and presentation led by Education Minister Tarek Shawki on Egypt’s reforms to the K-12 education system. The key highlight of the presentation: Students’ grades and GPAs will also no longer be entirely reliant on end-of-year exams, and will instead be calculated based on the best five scores from 10 open-book exams administered throughout the school year.

New exam system wants to lay Shou Ming to rest forever: In hopes of ending Egypt’s issues with cheating, the ministry will be administering tests remotely by sending them directly to students’ tablets, where the students will also be required to solve them. The strategy essentially cuts out all the middlemen that have the chance to leak an exam. This shift will also significantly reduce the cost of administering Thanaweya Amma exams, which cost state coffers around EGP 1.3 bn per year, a significant chunk of which is earmarked for printing the exams and proctors’ bonuses, according to Shawki. You can catch Shawki’s presentation of the system here (watch, runtime: 15:29).

Taking care of teachers: Raising teachers’ salaries by EGP 1,000 would require the state to spend an additional EGP 15 bn, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said at the conference. The president said that he is acutely aware of the need to raise wages across the country, but stressed that teachers are top priorities (watch, runtime: 19:22).