The success rate among Egypt's Thanaweya Amma students in the academic year 2019-2020 stood at 81.5 percent, Egypt's Minister of Education Tarek Shawki announced on Tuesday.

This year's nationwide exams were held under strict precautionary measures amid the coronavirus crisis.

Upon the successful completion of the Thanaweya Amma exam, which is the last stage of Egyptian high school education, students are awarded with the General Secondary Education Certificate.

Shawki announced in a video posted on the ministry’s social media pages on Tuesday that the success rate was 79.9 percent for male students and 82.9 percent for female students, with around 490,322 students passing the tests out of a total 650,000.

The minister added that 39 students this year received a perfect score of 100 percent.

More than 650,000 Egyptian students sat for the final high school exams, known as Thanaweya Amma, nationwide in June amid heightened precautionary measures to rein in the spread of the coronavirus.

Around 100 million coronavirus-related protection products, including 33 million facemasks, gloves and hand sanitisers were delivered to schools where the exams were being held.

Sanitising walk-through gates and temperature-reading devices had also been sent to exam venues.

The exams were held despite earlier calls in the past months for postponing until the country sees a reduction in the number of new coronavirus infections. Others called for replacing the exams with an online research system adopted for other school grades.

Egypt suspended school and university classes since March as part of the sweeping anti-virus measures and introduced a new research paper system as an alternative to the final exams in most other school grades.

The Thanaweya Amma qualification, which determines university prospects based on grades, has long been a source of panic for students and family alike, as they can in large part determine a pupil’s future.

Students will soon be applying to public universities based on the grades that each institution demands. This phase usually starts within a week after the official announcement of the high school exam results.