Student demonstrations condemning a recent decision by the Education Ministry to add marks for attendance and discipline extended outside Cairo on Sunday.
In Port Said, students at several high schools refused to attend classes and chanted slogans critical of Education Minister al-Helaly al-Shirbiny.
In Kafr al-Sheikh, hundreds of students staged a protest outside the governor’s office demanding the marks to be abrogated.
Based on the new addition to the student achievement assessment, high school students will get between five and seven extra marks for attending between 85-100 percent of classes throughout the school year. Three other behavioral assessment marks are to be granted based on a student’s commitment to the school’s bylaws.
Students believe the decision commits them to attendance without addressing other failures in the educational process.
Exam cheating, premature exam leaking and families’ heavy reliance on private tutoring for their children at the expense of school attendance have become rampant in recent years, stoking indiginance over the ministry’s performance.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
