From thanaweya amma to Egyptian baccalaureate: Another set of reforms to public high school system sparks confusion

Education Minister Mohamed Abdel Latif introduced his plan for more reforms to the government secondary education system during the Cabinet’s weekly meeting on Wednesday, according to domestic media outlets.

The changes would see the much maligned thanaweya amma system replaced with what Abdel Latif called the “new Egyptian baccalaureate system” starting in the new academic year, September 2025.

Egypt’s thanaweya amma examinations have been the subject of increasing criticism over recent years for teaching students to rely on rote memorization, amid wider concerns about the ailing education sector in which schools are understaffed, teachers are underpaid, and students rely on costly private lessons to get by.

“Each year, millions of families start what they consider the thanaweya amma 'nightmare,’” Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, adding that other educational systems adopted internationally spare students and their parents from the “severe psychological pressures” brought by the public senior year exams.

Latif said his proposed reform aims to develop students’ intellectual skills, provide them with a number of specialties to choose from, limit the load of subjects, and offer several chances for evaluation and future accreditation. 

The minister has already introduced a set of reforms since he took office last year to tackle classroom overcrowding, the shortage of teachers, and underfunding — issues that have made learning difficult for children in Egypt’s education system for years.

While the proposed reforms were considered positive by some parents, other parents and students sharing their responses on social media were left perplexed by the implementation of yet another set of reforms in less than a year — reforms that some noted wouldn’t get to the bottom of lasting issues in state education. 

What do we know so far about the reforms? 

According to details of the proposal published across the domestic media on Wednesday night, the new system would divide high school into two stages, a "preparatory phase” for the first year, followed by a main stage in years two and three.

In the preparatory phase, students are to be evaluated on seven subjects, including Arabic, history, mathematics, integrated science, philosophy, logic, and a first foreign language.

Subjects on the curriculum but not added to the final score for this school year are programming and computer science as well as a second foreign language.

The second foreign language subject was removed from students’ final score in reforms Abdel Latif introduced to schools last year, a sudden change the minister rang in at the eleventh hour that stirred anger and confusion among teachers who were worried at the time that students would drop out or neglect to attend their classes.

In years two and three, Abdel Latif’s proposed Egyptian baccalaureate will comprise three obligatory subjects: Arabic language, history, and a first foreign language.

Students in the second and third years will additionally choose from four specialties according to their future plans, including “medicine and life sciences,” “engineering and computer science,” “business,” and “literature and arts,” a model that some parents on social media platforms compared to international educational systems such as the International Baccalaureate and the IGCSE. 

Students will take two subjects per year depending on the chosen specialization, with a chance to repeat the year in case of failure, as long as they spend no more than four years to conclude their high school education.

Perhaps the most controversial change is that while the first attempt at the exam is free of charge, a LE500 fee is to be paid if the student has to resit.

Exams for the second year would take place in May and July, or in June and August for the third year.

If approved, the implementation date for the new reforms is set for the start of the new academic year in September.

Where are the gaps in the new proposal?

During the Cabinet meeting, Madbuly explained that a final version of the proposed reforms is yet to be finalized and that, when it is, it will be submitted for “public discussion.”

Students, parents, and teachers expressed uncertainty around whether the proposed system will be implemented in the new school year.

Abdel Latif’s reforms for the current academic year were introduced in August, just a month before the reforms were implemented in September, giving little time for schools, teachers, and students to plan ahead.

One second language teacher — who discovered that this year’s reforms meant his subject no longer counted toward students' final grades — was hopeful that this time, there would be more leeway for discussion. “It is still a suggestion; its implementation can still be reversed,” the teacher said on Thursday, preferring to speak to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

From their side, parents sharing their views on social media hoped that the new system would entail more fundamental curriculum changes. One parent, posting on a group for parents on Facebook, described the present curriculum content as “unsuitable for the age of students,” while another agreed that content should be altered, saying that at present it is all “pointless memorization.”

Others criticized the LE500 fee for resitting exams, saying that it would affect vulnerable households as they won’t necessarily have the means to pay for exam retakes in several subjects.

Former Education Minister Tarek Hegazy had proposed a similar scheme in December 2020, setting the cap for retaking exams at LE5,000. The proposal was never implemented, however, rejected by the Senate’s Education Committee at the time, who argued that it defied the constitutional principle of free education for all and equality of opportunity.

Other parents were hopeful about the proposal, however, arguing that it will mirror the style of education in Egypt’s international schools in government institutions.

“I was going to enroll my child in a private school next year,” the mother of a student finishing middle school told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. She said she changed her mind after hearing about the Wednesday proposal.

“The subjects would now be divided between three years, instead of one frightening year for students and parents,” she said, adding that a chance will be presented for students to improve their grades in exam retakes.

However, she argued that the changes inside the schools will not have a significant effect on the children’s education, since, for most, success or failure is still decided by outside-of-school private lessons.

The new changes, she concluded, “will not make a big difference, since children take private lessons in both cases.”