Second semester final examinations for transitional educational stage students have been suspended in the Sinai Peninsula due to ongoing military operations against armed militants, and first term exam results are to be adopted as the final ones, Ministry of Education spokesperson Ahmed Khairy announced on Tuesday.
Transitional educational stages are years when students enter the subsequent stage of school education (sixth primary grade and third preparatory grade). Khairy said that Tarek Shawki, the minister of education, agreed to consider the grades of the first semester at transitional education stages as the final grades of the year 2017-2018.
The decision came due to the comprehensive operation Sinai 2018 that the Egyptian Armed Forces and police launched in February to combat militancy in central and North Sinai, the Nile Delta, and the Western Desert, as well as the porous border with Libya.
Hundreds of police and military officers have been killed in the past few years in militant attacks carried out mostly by militants belonging to the Islamic State group branch in North Sinai. A state of emergency was declared in North Sinai in October 2014, following a bloody attack that targeted the Karam Al-Qawadis checkpoint which killed and injured dozens of police officers.
