The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) today released the English edition of its report titled “Screened Out: How Military Academy Requirements Discriminate Against Teachers”. 

Spanning more than 100 pages, the report traces the experiences of teachers who were excluded from the state’s “30,000 teachers” recruitment competition for reasons relating to excess weight, physical ability, pregnancy, recent childbirth, or health status, or because of views they expressed on public affairs during the final panel interview.

The exclusion resulted from a sudden decision to retest applicants  at the Military Academy even after passing the core examinations administered by the Central Agency for Organization and Administration (CAOA). The military test then excluded nearly 12,000 successful applicants, denying them teaching jobs they would have secured had the selection process continued within the official, legally established framework in place for decades.

According to the report, the physical fitness test administered to male teacher applicants at the Military Academy consisted of push-ups (30 points), sit-ups (30 points), a 100-metre run (20 points), and an 800-metre run (20 points), for a total of 100 points. For female applicants, it consisted of an accuracy exercise (20 points), a standing long jump (20 points), a 100-metre run (20 points), and a zigzag run (40 points), also for a total of 100 points. Applicants had to score at least 50 points to proceed to the remaining stages of the competition.

Previously unpublished documents obtained by EIPR researchers also revealed that applicants - men and women alike - were required to answer written questions including:

●      Do you have an atrophied testicle?

●      Have you undergone surgery to remove part of your stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, adrenal gland, colon, or rectum?

●      Have you received an organ transplant?

●      Have you undergone surgery on your urinary or reproductive system?

In early 2022, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a competition to recruit 150,000 teachers over five years, at a rate of 30,000 a year. The announcement followed a worsening teacher shortage in Egypt, which, according to figures released at the time, had reached 665,000.

During the first phase, thousands of teachers sat the admission examinations administered by the CAOA. Around 28,000 applicants passed these examinations, which assessed their pedagogical and technical skills and whether their health made them fit to teach. They were then surprised to learn that their appointments had been suspended pending additional and previously unannounced tests at the Military Academy. These tests bore no relation to teaching and violated established constitutional and legal rights. They included assessments of weight and physical fitness, as well as a final interview before a panel of several Armed Forces officers and a representative of the Ministry of Education.

In addition to interviews with teachers excluded as a result of the Military Academy tests ,the report analyses the case files of 106 lawsuits brought by EIPR on behalf of 94 women and 12 men who had been excluded. In these cases, EIPR lawyers detailed violations arising from the Military Academy’s procedures, which initially deprived thousands of teachers of appointment for reasons entirely unrelated to education. The report assesses these violations against the Egyptian Constitution, Egyptian law, and international treaties binding to the Egyptian state.

Last year, following the appointment of Engineer Hatem Nabil as head of the CAOA, EIPR sent him a letter explaining the problems with the Military Academy tests and urging him to ensure justice for the affected teachers. As of the report’s publication, however, EIPR had received no response.

The report concludes that the Military Academy tests violate the Egyptian Constitution’s by discriminating on the basis of health, physical ability, gender, and political opinion. They also infringe on a full range of citizenship rights, including  the right to decent work, equal opportunity, and holding public positions.

The report also examines the steady expansion in recent years of the “militarization of public employment” and the encroachment on the functions and roles of other government bodies and institutions. The Military Academy has effectively acquired the decisive say over appointments, even when candidates meet all the requirements of the job, with no mechanism for reviewing or appealing its decisions.

The report further documents in detail the rights-holders’ struggle against the injustice and violations caused by these arbitrary and discriminatory tests. Their efforts ranged from filing grievances and holding peaceful demonstrations to seeking the support of members of parliament and pursuing litigation before the courts for more than two years.

Read the full report here