Back to the complete issue
Sunday, 29 July 2018

Cairo University Youth Conference focuses on education

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).

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.