Laila, the vivacious hardworking 18-year-old with twinkling eyes next door this year scored some 92 per cent of the full grade of the Thanawiya Amma, Egypt’s final secondary school examination
Laila, the vivacious hardworking 18-year-old with twinkling eyes next door this year scored some 92 per cent of the full grade of the Thanawiya Amma, Egypt’s final secondary school examination. One might have expected Laila and her family to be elated at the score but no, the family was almost in mourning and Laila was broken-hearted. The seemingly high score which should have earned accolades under any other condition was insufficient for Laila to join her college of choice: the school of dentistry.
The Thanawiya Amma has long presented a traumatic rite of passage to higher education and that most coveted asset in Egyptian society: a university degree. Granted, a university degree offers an indispensable means to a good job and lucrative career; but it carries with it a priceless social dimension almost impossible to obtain otherwise: social prestige. Ever since university education became free of charge in 1942, that social prestige which had for centuries eluded a large portion of Egyptians suddenly became one examination away.
Much has changed
It must be owned, however, that much has changed in Egypt since the 1940s. The population then amounted to some 15 million; today it is close to a staggering 85 million. State universities numbered a mere two; today there are some 21, yet these are incapable of accommodating the growing number of students who every year pass the Thanawiya Amma.
This year, 419,829 students sat for Thanawiya Amma exams. Out of these 303,784 were accepted in universities and higher education institutes, an increase of some 83,784 over the numbers for 2011. Considering the fierce competition that drives students—and their families—to mobilise all their energy and resources for a son or daughter to pass the Thanawiya Amma with flying colours—some one-third of those who passed the exam managed to score above 90 per cent of the full grade. A total of 2,682 students scored 100 per cent.
Free tuition
Given that the capacity of State universities, where tuition is free of charge, is way below the number of successful Thanawiya Amma students, only a portion of them may expect to find a place in universities. An alternative is one of the private universities, which require hefty fees but offer a limited number of scholarships to distinguished students. Students and parents unable to afford private tuition are left asking how a student who scored some 80 per cent can find no place in university; or how a score of 97 per cent can be insufficient for a student to pursue the field of study of his or her choice?
These questions, which have from one year to the next become increasingly and ominously pressing, need urgent answers. Otherwise we risk nothing short of social unrest.
Watani looked to the experts for answers.
The only answer the government has so far offered is to require universities to accept larger numbers of students every year. Teachers, however, have warned that overtaxing universities with students that far exceed their capacity would lead to a breakdown in the university teaching system, and would release unqualified graduates into the labour market.
Crisis point
In the case of the faculty of mass media, its dean Hassan Emad says that increasing the number of enrolled students from 400 to 1,500 last year led to a real crisis; it came at the expense of the quality of education.
This year, the Supreme Council of Universities in Egypt (SCU) increased the number of students admitted to State universities to 290,361.
Ashraf Hatem, secretary of the SCU, said that the reason behind increasing admissions to university was the huge rise in the number of students who scored more than 90 per cent. The SCU, however, places the responsibility for the abnormally high scores squarely on the shoulders of the education ministry. It is no secret that the Thanawiya Amma exams were too easy this year, thus the high scores. The government apparently decided it could not risk the anger of students and parents if the exams were difficult, so they set easy exams. This merely shifted the problem from exams to university admissions, and shifted public anger in precisely the same direction. Now the problem is not about a student scoring low marks; it is about a high score that is no guarantee to a place in university.
Too many students
The current dean of Cairo University, Hussam Kamel, believes the main reason behind this year’s crisis lies in the high rate of success of Thanawiya Amma students, which creates pressure on higher education.
Together with the previous dean of Cairo University, Hamed Taher, Dr Kamel believes the Thanawiya exams should be designed to measure the real skills of students and should be no slave to public opinion. Nadia Gamal Eddin, previous manager of the national centre for educational research, also sees that the problem has more to do with the politics of pleasing the public and satisfying parents and students than it has to do with education or exams.
According to Ain Shams University Dean Eissa Hussein, it is the increase in the number of students each year, an increase not matched by a parallel increase in university capacity, that creates the problem. Which, he says, is not to deny that the school system of rote learning needs a number of reforms in order to produce students capable of independent, critical thinking.
Absolute transparency
“It is essential that a new vision for education be discussed and adopted, and this should be started from an early phase—preparatory school,” Dr Hussein suggests.
Farouq Ismail, a former dean at Cairo University, says that the high scores do not reflect distinction; they are just the normal result of efficient tutoring that is adept at predicting the exam questions and being ready with the answers. In agreement with Dr Ismail was Nawal al-Degwi, head of the board of trustees of the October University for Modern Sciences and Arts, private university.
“These impressive results are illusive and a predictable result of rote learning,” he notes. “The entire educational needs overhauling in order to teach better intellectual abilities.”
Dr Degwi criticised the fact that university admissions were dependent solely on the Thanawiya Amma score. She suggested that universities had their own entrance or skills exams for admissions. But this, it has to be remembered, is an issue which has more than once been discussed and absolutely rejected by the public on grounds that it would open the door to favouritism and irregular practices. The Thanawiya Amma score has one big advantage on its side: absolute transparency.
The horse that pulls the carriage
Yet there does exist an answer to all the problems so arduously explored above; an answer that should work for the benefit of students, parents, and Egypt in its entirety.
Saleh Shamsuddin Ismail, professor of nuclear chemistry at Vienna University of Technology, is one of a number of expatriate Egyptians working hard to spread their ideas about improving technical education. “A good technical education is the horse that pulls the carriage of the economy, social peace and national security,” Dr Ismail explained. Technical education should thus be the main project for Egypt.
For now, according to the Ministry of Education, there are in Egypt some 2 million students studying in 1743 technical schools in the pre-university level. “So, what kind of technical education are we talking about?” Dr Ismail says.
“Introducing quality technical education to Egypt rests on three axes: that non-traditional proposals be supported by the required legislation; that universities should actively contribute to promote secondary school level technical education, and that the social image of technical school graduates should be enhanced,” he says.
Social prestige
The obstacles in the way of technical education in Egypt, according to Dr Ismail, are not only financial, but are mainly social. Once, however, a student receives a prestigious technical education that lands him or her a good job, a long way towards social prestige would have been achieved.
This can be helped by the fact that universities and higher education institutes should allow technical school students to turn to them for the practical part of their studies. Such a move would be beneficial for the quality of education as well as for the social image, since it would more or less blur the social line that divides technical schools from technical universities.
“I wish that, within the coming 15 years, technical education should become the choice option for pre-university students. This is the national programme I am calling for,” Dr Ismail concluded.
WATANI International
9 September 2012