The mid-year school holiday is set to begin on Saturday and last for two weeks. Schools are scheduled to resume classes on 20 February.
According to recently-appointed Education Minister Ahmed Badr, precautionary measures put into effect last year to avert the possible spread of the H1N1 virus in schools have been deemed "no longer necessary." Student attendance sheets, therefore, will once again be taken into consideration when calculating students’ grade point average.
In a related development, an initiative aimed at introducing electronic applications for vocational schools– whereby students could register themselves via the Internet–was postponed after officials charged with devising the program resigned in protest against Badr’s appointment as minister.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
