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Volume 12, Issue 5   REGIONAL NEWS PRACTICAL INFORMATION RESEARCH
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Regional News
Students refer to the year of preparation study before taking the exam as the “ghoul” largely because of the tremendous pressure they are under to achieve a good score.
Many experts are criticizing the thanawaya amma for the agony it puts most students through.
Dr. Muhammad Shaalan, a psychiatrist from Cairo, says students who do not attain high marks in the exam lapse into depression because they feel their dreams for the future have been shattered. Some even commit suicide as a result.
Others agree with Shaalan and blame the current system of education for burdening students with undue woes.
“The thanawaya amma is a nightmare for the students and the whole system needs to be revolutionized,” opined Professor Madiha al-Safty, a sociologist at the American University of Cairo.
“It emphasizes only memorization and does not allow any creativity or free thinking.”
However, despite the numerous complaints from experts and parents alike, education officials insist that the thanawaya amma offers the best criteria for determining university spaces for the huge number of students who take the exam each year.
Muhammad Mahrous Ismail, an economics professor at Alexandria University, is critical of the thanawaya amma but does not see any alternative to the exam. “Another system might risk the interference of unscrupulous individuals,” he said, referring to the enormous pressures that exist in obtaining a university degree.
Moreover, the number of students competing for university places has increased to such a degree that classroom overcrowding has become a chronic problem at Egyptian universities.
But while universities can absorb a lot of the overflow, the job market cannot. Postgraduate unemployment remains an even bigger problem for many young Egyptians.
— Middle East Times
Both programs lead to a bachelor’s degree in applied sciences and are geared towards working professionals who wish to enhance their educational background.
Courses for these programs are conducted in the evenings and are offered on a part time basis over 18 months to accommodate working professionals.
Each program only accepts between 15 to 20 students out of 120 applicants.
The business information technology program, which began Sept. 4 when the university reopened, is preparing students for work as senior systems analysts and information technology managers.
It includes seven courses and an industrial project that all students are required to complete before they are awarded a degree.
The engineering management program is scheduled to begin in December and is geared towards professionals who work in the fields of civil, chemical, mechanical and aviation engineering. Only 20 applicants will be accepted into this program.
— Khaleej Times Online
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Each year in early August, the results for the thanawaya amma (annual high school examination) are posted throughout the country, allowing students to learn what university spaces are available to them. Those who do not make the grade cannot get into the faculty of their choice.