A video showing a police officer assaulting a thanaweyya amma secondary school student was circulated on social media. The video was captured during a student protest in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Education on Monday, according to videographer Adel Eissa, who posted the video on his Facebook page.
The video shows a police officer scolding a student and asking him to turn his face to the wall. The student refused to obey the order, so the officer assaulted and insulted him.
Daily News Egypt cannot verify the authenticity of the circulated video as the Interior Ministry did not respond to several requests to comment on the incident.
On Monday afternoon, dozens of thanaweyya amma students staged a protest near the headquarters of the Ministry of Education, condemning recent exam leaks and the subsequent decisions issued by the ministry to confront the leaks. These decisions included the suspension and rescheduling of some exams, causing massive outrage among students.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education El-Helal El-Sherbiny issued on Monday a decision to sack the general manager of the ministry’s exams administration, and replace him with a temporary chargé d’affairs, according to an official statement issued by the ministry’s media office.
Since the beginning of the exam season in early June, all exam papers have been leaked on social media, either prior to or during the exam time, despite the Education Ministry’s denial of some leaks.
Over the past weeks, a major protest at the ministry’s headquarters in downtown Cairo was dispersed by security forces, and dozens of students were briefly detained over the protest.
Over 20 people have been arrested on charges of leaking exam papers on the internet since the start of the exams earlier this month. The arrests came as part of a crackdown on exam fraud.
The thanaweya amma exam leaks have put the Ministry of Education under increasing pressure, raising more and more questions about Egypt’s education system, which many are calling to change.
