Have our desperate prayers for better education in Egypt finally been answered? Following a Supreme Educational Council meeting, the Ministry of Education announced its decision to cancel Midterm exams for primary and secondary stages. This is no reason for all you students to throw away your revision books yet though, as the termly exams are instead being replaced by 6 end of the month exams in an effort to make education in Egypt more globally compliant, according to Akhbar Al Youm. Let the collective groans of 10 to 18 year olds echo across the land.

Despite the increase in the amount of exams primary and secondary students will have to sit through during the academic year, the new reforms actually indicate a positive change in Egypt’s infamously horrendous educational system. During the SEC meeting held to discuss pre-collegiate schooling, the Minister of Education, Dr Hilal Sherbini, even expressed his plans to eliminate some of the material currently present in the curriculum to instead begin integrating more activities like PE, agricultural and industrial practices, as well as IT and computing. The introduction of more languages aside from Arabic and English into the school programs will also take place. Can we get a Hallelujah?

The overall allocation of grades earned over the course of the year is also reported to massively change, from being entirely reliant on term exams, to having a more balanced division of 40% to 60% between class activities and end of year written exams. No more year-long slacking followed by late night cramming for high school kids anymore, then.

The reforms have already been approved by the council members, indicating the imminent change in the future of Egypt's education.

Photo retrieved from Egyptian Center For Economic Social Rights (ECESR).