High school exams marathon started across Egypt Saturday,
using the new system of bubble sheet for the first time.
Amidst heightened precautionary measures due to the fear of spread of COVID-19 virus, a total of 393 thousand students took their first test of Arabic language.
The students were handed the questions booklet and a bubble sheet with multiple choice questions, where they are allowed to fill in their answers using a pencil first, and then when they are sure about the answers, they can shade the answers using a pen.
The new testing system is available in paper-based sheets or electronically through tablets, where students answer the exams in both ways to guarantee they do not encounter any problems. However, the Ministry of Education said that using the tablets will be used by the ministry as a reference if the computers fail to recognize an answer, meaning that the students can answer in both.
The new testing system is deemed as a revolutionary change in the old testing system of high school, where fear pre-occupies both students and parents of not collecting high grades to match certain colleges.
The High School (or Thanaweya Amma) testing decides which colleges, universities across Egypt will the students be admitted, according to their grades. The ministry Students taking the exams are banned from downloading any applications on the tablets or hacking them. In case this happened, the tablets will be collected and reports will filed with the incident.
Source: Egypt Today
