The results are promising, enthused Hegazy in his announcement.

Over 90 percent of students passed the Arabic language exam while 91 percent passed the foreign/second language test, said the education minister.

The data also shows that more than 1.5 percent of Arabic exam takers scored 95 percent or higher, while over 20 percent of those who took the foreign/second language test achieved a score of 95 percent or above, according to his statement.

He added that despite anxiety among students about certain exams, such as the chemistry exam, as many as 1,000 out of 260,000 students were able to achieve a perfect score. 5,000 students scored at least 95 percent on the chemistry exam.

The Thanaweya Amma exams are of paramount importance, noted Hegazy, as they determine the future prospects and opportunities for students in higher education and beyond. The results of these exams have a major impact on a student's future academic and career paths.

Starting 15 June, approximately 783,000 Egyptian senior-year students took the country’s standardized final-year exams over the span of a month.

The student body comprised 276,211 students in the art division, 391,671 students in the sciences division and 98,658 students in the mathematics division.

Examination halls were rife with cheating attempts over the past exam season. However, due to the strict standards upheld by the ministry, Hegazy reports that no exam questions have been successfully leaked to the public since 2016.

Examinations this year included personalized barcodes for each student, and a booklet system to make cheating more difficult.

Cracks in the system
 

The Thanaweya Amma system has faced criticisms in the past over students' futures being decided by a single exam in each subject.

Rumours of changes to the grading structure have led the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Shady Zalata, to publicly address them in a television interview on Wednesday.

The education ministry is developing a grading framework that will spread out assessments over the school year, rather compressing grades into final year exams, Zalata confirmed.

The ministry is also considering allowing students to complete their high school education in a span of two years instead of three, he added.

The ongoing implementation of a new system in middle school assessments must, however, be completed before focusing the ministry's attention on the Thanaweya Amma system, concluded the Spokesperson.