Dozens of high school students demonstrated outside the Education Ministry in Saad Zaghloul on Wednesday, calling for detained students to be freed.
The pupils, some of them members of the Students to Improve Education movement, demanded that their fellow students across Egypt be released after being imprisoned for demonstrating in support of deposed President Mohamed Morsy.
Students chanted slogans condemning the security forces and demanding authorities stop interfering in their affairs and politics. They held banners describing the Education Ministry as a place of intimidation and oppression.
Central Security Forces were deployed around the ministry during the protest to protect the building and staff inside.
The students participating in the protest denied being affiliated to any political parties or forces, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
The students demanded the speedy release of the detained students, the withdrawal of interior ministry forces from schools and the securing of schools only from the outside.
They also demanded the enforcement of Education Minister Mahmoud Aboul Nasr's resolution to prevent the practice of politics in schools and to prevent the pro-army song “God blesses the hands” from being played in schools.
In addition, they demanded the education minister resign.
The students issued a statement condemning what they described as “repressive practices of the Interior Ministry in the recent period against students of Egypt, including arrests and frequent attacks on their peaceful demonstrations.”
“The students were arrested for demanding retribution for the martyrs,” according to the statement.
On the other hand, Education Minister Mahmoud Aboul Nasr said the ministry would stand behind all students, but “the ministry cannot address the authorities if the student or the teacher arrested is a criminal defendant.”
He reassured them that he would formally address the interior ministry to release all detained school students and teachers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
