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solving, rather it teaches children the best methods of cramming as much they can during the smallest time frame. It is also not uncommon for these tutors to give students various “hacks” to help them know what part of the curriculum they should focus on most, and which ones they could glance over once or maybe twice. Take for instance Arabic, in the Egyptian school curriculum Arabic is split into a number of different sections, essays (taabeer) ,novels (kesas), poems (nosos), grammar (nahwo). In 12th grade Egyptian high schools, students study Al Ayam (The Days) by Taha Hussien as their novel section, and taking this as an example many private tutors will tell their students which chapters to focus on and which chapters they can ignore. To be fair, most of these tutors don’t make up these claims as they usually back their “insider knowledge” on which chapters have appeared most on recent test papers and which ones have been set aside. Furthermore, many students will also ask their friends on pointers their tutors have given them and as a result many students will most likely go into the exam having crammed 70 to 80 per cent of the novel rather than 100 per cent of the book. While the discrepancies between public schools and private schools have highlighted the class differences in Egyptian society, private tutoring has had a similar effect. Most of these private tutors are highly reliant on word of mouth, and once one tutor becomes renowned for helping a
In 2017, Egyptian Education minister Tarek Shawky announced that the ministry would get rid of the Thanaweya Amma standardised test. In its place, a new grade percentage system would be favoured.
multitude of students pass with flying colours, they will soon find themselves receiving many phone calls from parents asking them to take their kids under their wing. The more popular tutors (aka the ones who are known for yielding the best results) are usually the ones who charge more. Since parents are forced to hire a tutor for each subject, then they are forced to make hefty decisions on which tutors they can afford. While public education has meant that lower income households did not need to worry about tuition, the growing necessity for cram schools have made such households adjust their budgets to accommodate private tutoring WHAT ABOUT PRIVATE SCHOOLS It was once believed that children who go to private schools get the attention that their public school cohorts lack, and therefore did not
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A parent reading the holy Quran during waiting the students exit outside the examination committee during the first day of high school exams in Giza Governorate, Egypt, on June 2020 ,21. (Getty)
