Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: Changing the Technical Diploma Examination System… A Necessity in the Time of Corona
The Higher Committee for Technical Diploma Examinations (industrial, agricultural, commercial) manages the diploma examinations nationwide through regional committees in the geographical sectors, each of which covers a number of governorates. The administration committee handles the assignment of teachers to supervise the examinations (“committee heads and their deputies, supervisors and invigilators”), while the system and monitoring committee (the control) carries out the marking and recording of grades. The rest-house committees provide overnight accommodation for teachers and staff seconded to the various committees, while the distribution committee is responsible for transporting and distributing the examination question papers throughout the Republic in dedicated vehicles escorted by police forces, which then return the answer sheets to the control every day. The financial cost of covering these operations is estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds a year, between bonuses for the committees, rest houses, transport, security, monitoring, marking, administrators and workers in the various examination committees. However, in light of the health conditions and the preventive measures required to protect against the coronavirus, we present a new plan for this year’s technical diploma examination system, suited to the current situation and based on four main pillars, namely: The first: transferring the competence of the administration committees regarding the provision of schools, invigilators and supervisors for the examination committees to administration committees formed in the schools in coordination with the educational directorates, with teachers nominated from the same city where the school is located, to prevent travel, limit the risk of infection and save travel allowances. The second pillar: the technical diploma examination questions are set at the level of each governorate, as is done for the preparatory certificate, to reduce the risks arising from transporting question papers and answer sheets between governorates, to relieve the security services of the burden of securing their transport, and to save costs. The third pillar: marking the answer sheets through the school control under the supervision of outstanding, competent and transparent staff, according to the system applied in the transfer years in the same schools, with the result sheets sent to the main sectors to issue the certificates, under follow-up and oversight by the main system and monitoring committees. The fourth pillar: the possibility of allocating two days a week to the examinations of each technical diploma in rotation, to reduce the number of students and staff and the number of doctors and nurses that would be required for each committee if the diploma examinations were held at the same time, in addition to making it possible to mark the answer sheets and record the grades of each technical diploma separately on the days when there are no examinations in that specialization, which would speed up the work and save time. As for the objectives of the plan, they are to abolish the rest houses and limit gatherings and travel in implementation of the preventive measures, and to save the exorbitant expenses of the administration, system and monitoring, distribution and rest-house committees, with the sums saved being directed to elements for developing technical education in the future. Add to this that implementing this plan and abolishing the aforementioned committees and their web-like operations would be the first building block in confronting the vested interests and profiteers who contributed to producing generations of illiterate, unemployed young people who cannot read or write. It is a great opportunity to remove the obstacles, confront those who resist change, and set out to develop the technical education system in Egypt on the basis of knowledge, good planning, and the entrenchment of national principles and values and transparency. We hope to see our children, the young holders of technical diplomas, at a decent technical level that matches the needs of the labour market, and able to read and write well so as to develop their professional skills.... To be continued
