June 21st an update

 

For all those of you out there wondering what life in Egypt is like at the moment it is very unsettled here, both at school and in the country.

At school they  moved the end of year exams for year 7, 8 and 9 forward a week and then let the students finish school for this year after their last exam (June 14th). so more lost curriculum time there. The end of year exams are all that takes place over a 3 day period, no teaching is timetabled just invigilation. Maddison’s year group (year 10) were the only group of students left in the British side of the school, the Americans had grade 9 in and the primary school was in. Year 10 were expected to attend until June 20th as they are studying 2 year courses and teachers were expected to give lessons. The kids voted with their feet and didn’t turn up! Maybe a dozen were in school which made it difficult to teach if they bothered turning up to their lessons, which some of them didn’t. So Maddison finished yesterday. On Tuesday we got on the bus to travel to school and the traffic was so bad it took 2 and a half hours to travel what would normally take 30 mins. There was still another 20 minutes of normal travelling time to finish but the traffic was at a standstill with no foreseeable movement , so we checked with school, got off the bus and went home!

Today, Thursday, the school has closed in anticipation of the election results causing conflict and protests, so what has happened – the declaration of the result has been moved to Saturday or Sunday after they have investigated the alleged inconsistencies with the number of voters on file and the number of votes cast at certain polling stations. Who knows what the school will do as only the teachers are in next week for shut down week (pack your room up) and the parents morning on the 26th.

So now we come to the dissolution of parliament, the presidential election, Mubarak’s health, let alone what the UK government are contemplating doing to the education system!

1. Functional skills introduced at GSCE new exam needed 2010

2. GSCE’s go linear starting September 2013

3.  Changes to A levels (possible linear courses) to start September 2014 – maybe loosing AS levels

4.  GCSE’s being replaced with a more rigorous exam (O level) and less difficult exam (CSE) from September 2014- possibly only one exam board

Do they not realise all the extra work this will cause?

The Egyptian problems are leaving the country tense and insecure, there are students emigrating to Canada and other countries to get away from it all (across the British section I have heard of 5 or 6 already).

An interesting place to be – we will miss the July and August problems because we will be back in the UK. Come September, hopefully, all will be calm again. A leader will be in place, the people will have a voice in parliament and the country will be able to generate an income through tourism and other industries.

How are we? Well Maddy went to a hotel after her exams yesterday to swim  and sit by the pool and got sunburnt, ‘it hurts’ goes her text. I have yet to see it!  Geoff has a problem with his Achilles tendon that makes walking difficult, hopefully it will clear up in time for him to drive in the UK as my licence is out of date. The fridge freezer died on Sunday and all the food defrosted so I had to cook all the meat and eat it quickly. The men came and replaced a part so we hope it will work for the next 10 days.  And I am fine. I am cleaning the house for the penultimate time before we leave, oh what fun.