The head of the Education Ministry’s department for high school examinations, Reda Hegazi, denied the validity of an Arabic language exam that was circulated on social media platforms in the early morning of Sunday, the first day of 2018 secondary school exams.
The official explained that the alleged leaked exam is last year’s paper and asserted that it is not possible to leak the exams, as they are printed and stored in one of the sovereign authorities and transferred under tight security to examinations halls.
During the early hours of Sunday, online pages known for leaking secondary school exams published photos of an exam, claiming that it was the one students sat on Sunday. Some students received the alleged leaked exam through WhatsApp in exchange for transferring the sender mobile phone credit.
Thanaweya amma exams started on 3 June, with the first subjects tested being the Arabic language and religious studies. They are scheduled to end on 1 July. Over 500,000 students from different governorates are sitting the exams.
The exam seasons of the past two years saw the leaking of exam papers by online pages, which resulted in the arrest of several Ministry of Education officials. Thanaweya amma is Egypt’s secondary school certificate, required for applying to universities and higher education institutions.
