Egypt Begins High School Exams for 2025-2026 Academic Year

Launch of the 2026 High School Exams.

The high school examination marathon for the academic year 2025-2026 commenced today, Sunday, across Egypt in 613 educational centers. Students began their exams with religious education and national education subjects.

More than 921,000 students enrolled in both the old and new secondary education systems started their religious education exam at nine o’clock, lasting for 90 minutes.

Examination committees opened their doors to students at 8:30 AM to facilitate entry and conduct inspections to prevent any electronic devices that could assist in cheating.

A police presence was established outside examination centers to ensure student safety and maintain order during the examination process.

Secure question boxes arrived with police escorts by 8 AM and were only opened under an official record just minutes before the exam began.

Testing the Examination Centers

The Ministry of Education and Technical Education is piloting a new system of “examination centers,” being implemented for the first time this year, aimed at enhancing control over exam venues and ensuring equal opportunities for all students.

This system involves grouping high school examination committees within a designated area in each educational administration, allowing for easier management and security through a concentrated police presence.

No student will leave their educational administration to take exams; instead, they will remain within their designated area for secondary school examinations.

This year also marks the first time that national schools are being utilized as examination centers, leveraging their larger facilities that allow for three high school exam committees to be accommodated in one school, along with their superior infrastructure.

A total of 613 examination centers have been established across various educational administrations, comprising 2,032 examination committees.

Passing Criteria for Religious Education

The exams for non-core subjects consist of 25 multiple-choice questions using a “bubble sheet” format, without any essay questions. Each subject is graded out of a maximum of 25 points.

Under a ministerial decree designating religious education as a pass/fail subject not included in overall grades, students must achieve at least 70% of the total points to pass. This equates to a minimum score of 17.5 out of 25.

For national education, students need to secure at least 50% of the total points, which is equivalent to a score of 12.5 out of 25.

2026 High School Exam Schedule (New System)

This week, high school students will take exams in non-core subjects (religious education, national education, second foreign language), while core subject examinations will commence next Sunday with Arabic language assessments.

• Sunday, June 21, 2026: Religious Education and National Education
• Tuesday, June 23, 2026: Second Foreign Language
• Sunday, June 28, 2026: Arabic Language
• Thursday, July 2, 2026: Chemistry (Scientific Stream) and Geography (Literary Stream)
• Sunday, July 5, 2026: First Foreign Language
• Thursday, July 9, 2026: Physics (Scientific Stream) and History (Literary Stream)
• Sunday, July 12, 2026: Pure Mathematics (Mathematics Stream)
• Thursday, July 16, 2026: Biology (Science Stream), Applied Mathematics (Mathematics Stream), and Statistics (Literary Stream).