**#7 The new elementary school curriculum came into effect yesterday on the first day of the new school year. The Sisi administration’s new primary education system officially came into effect yesterday as some 60k public schools opened their doors to students for the 2018-19 academic year, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The new system does away with primary-level education certificates to students after sixth grade and is meant to bolster Arabic-language education and move away from rote memorization. The second phase of the program, due to roll out in September 2019, will make it mandatory to teach subjects including science, technology, engineering, and math in English at the middle school level.

The Education Ministry has also received the first batch of educational tablets it intends to hand out to students, which will be used to administer final exams, Minister Tarek Shawki said yesterday, according to Al Mal. The first batch includes 100k tablets and another 100k devices are scheduled for delivery within the next few days. A total of 700k tablets should be supplied by the end of October, Shawki said. The ministry had contracted Samsung to supply 1 mn tablets for the 2018-19 academic year at a cost of USD 240 mn.