|
Cairo: Samia Ahmad, a mother of a high school pupil taking his final-year examination, is doubtful that her son will obtain enough high grades to attend medical school.
"He has studied hard, but in view of the exam paper leakage to privileged students, the latter are set to collect the highest marks effortlessly," Samia said angrily as she was waiting for her son outside an examination hall in northern Cairo.
"This is unfair. Those found guilty of leaking the exam papers must be sentenced to death because they make a mockery of the principle of equal opportunities and jeopardise national security," she told Gulf News.
Having a son or a daughter preparing for the high school examinations, locally known as the Thanawiya Amma, always means in Egypt sleepless nights, expensive private lessons and less social visits.
The situation took a turn for the worse earlier this month when the word went round that exam sheets were made illegally available to senior officials' children who had taken the exams in Minya, some 240km south of Cairo.
The news of the exam paper leakage has shocked this nation of nearly 79 million where attending prestigious faculties, as those of medicine, pharmacology and engineering, are widely believed to be the passport to a prosperous future.
The scam prompted Egypt's Public Prosecutor Abdul Majeed Mahmoud to go to Minya last week to follow investigations. Mahmoud put the number of people involved in the case at 26.
They include senior police officers, local officials and a member of parliament belonging to the ruling party. Prosecutors have already ordered 10 of them be jailed pending further investigations. They face charges of embezzlement, intentional damage, breach of trust and bribe-taking.
A major defendant, identified as Ayman Faraj, has confessed to having been involved in leaking the high-school exam papers over the past three years. He was quoted in the local press as telling investigators he used to sell the exam papers to parents and relatives.
Meanwhile, Minister of the Interior Habib Al Adli ordered the creation of an internal investigation committee to question senior policemen, including a major-general, who are allegedly implicated in the scandal.
Other officials from the Ministry of Education in Minya have been quizzed as the Ministry is considering a re-sit in the exams if investigations prove they were leaked on a massive scale.
The scam has brought the national education system under heavy criticism. "This system encourages students to take private lessons because the teacher is not paying attention in the classroom," Saeed Esmail, a professor of curriculums at the Ein Shams University in Cairo.
Private lessons are estimated to cost Egyptian families around 14 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh9.62 billion) annually.
"The whole system does not educate the student morally and focuses rather on the quantity, not the quality, of curricula given to him," Esmail told Gulf News.
Have you heard of a similar leak? What happened? How would that affect the quality of education in the region? Tell us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com or fill in the form bellow to send your comments.
Send us your comments
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Gulf News may edit comments for length and clarity but will not change the tone of the message. Comments will only be accepted if all fields (including name) are filled correctly and the message isn't abusive, defamatory or offensive. The Gulf News website will only print your first name along with your comment. Please state in the message if you wish to remain anonymous. All comments sent may be forwarded for use in the Gulf News newspaper.
|
