STEM Schools Egypt

Overview

Egypt's STEM High Schools are a small number of specialised, government-run public schools — the first opened at 6th of October City in 2011, and reports put the current network at roughly 20 schools spread across most governorates — that teach a project-based STEM curriculum instead of the standard secondary syllabus. They sit outside the general secondary-school system entirely: a student who wins a seat follows STEM's own Capstone-project curriculum and its own final assessments, rather than the regular three-year Thanaweya Amma track and its five-subject exit papers (covered in a separate Thanaweya Amma file). Entry is by a competitive, nationwide application and admission-test process run once a year by the Ministry, open to top-performing graduates of the preparatory (middle-school) stage.

Who can apply

• Egyptian nationality.

• Completion of the Basic Education Completion Certificate (the preparatory-stage/"Shahada I'dadiya" exam), first round, in the same year as the application.

• An age limit set against 1 October of the enrolment year, as fixed by the Ministry each cycle.

• A minimum preparatory-certificate score, assessed in one of two ways: a total of about 98% or more with no minimum in any individual subject, or a total of about 95% or more together with full marks in at least one of English, Mathematics or Science.

Because these thresholds are reset and confirmed by the Ministry for each intake, applicants should check the exact percentage required for the year they are applying in on the Ministry's own notice.

Exam pattern

Students who meet the qualifying score are called to sit a nationwide admission test, run electronically at designated centres, before a seat is offered.

The test is designed to assess reasoning and analytical ability alongside subject knowledge, rather than to re-test preparatory-stage syllabus content.

Marking and results

The Ministry has not published a fixed pass mark for the admission test; places are offered competitively, by rank, against the number of seats available at each school. Demand is very high relative to the number of seats — one individual STEM school has been reported as accepting only a small fraction of its thousands of applicants in a given year — so meeting the minimum qualifying score and sitting the test are necessary but do not guarantee a seat.

Important dates

For the 2026/2027 intake, reported dates were:

• Online registration: 30 July – 9 August 2026, via the Ministry's application platform.

• Electronic admission tests: 16–20 August 2026, for students who met the qualifying score.

These dates are set fresh by the Ministry each year and should be confirmed on the official portal closer to the application window. (Separately, STEM schools' own final-year exit exams for students already enrolled follow a different schedule from this entrance process — see the Thanaweya Amma file for how that compares to the general system's exit exam.)

Fees

For the 2026/2027 academic year, reported annual fees ranged from about EGP 10,000 to about EGP 50,000, varying by the type of preparatory school the student graduated from (for example, Arabic-medium government, national or private-school graduates were reported at the lower end, with language-medium graduates and other categories at higher tiers). Reports also describe STEM schools as residential, with students housed in furnished dormitory accommodation on campus. Families are required to pay the applicable fee within about two weeks of the result being announced to confirm the seat.

How to apply

1. Register online through the Ministry's application platform during the announced registration window.

2. Print and sign the completed application form.

3. Submit the signed form, along with the preparatory certificate and required identification documents, to the local educational directorate.

4. Students who meet the qualifying score are notified to sit the electronic admission test at a designated centre.

5. After results, confirm the seat by paying the applicable fee within the deadline set by the Ministry.

After the exam

Candidates are ranked using their admission-test performance together with their preparatory-certificate score, and seats are offered school by school as places allow. A student who is offered and confirms a seat then follows the STEM school's own project-based curriculum — built around semester-long Capstone design projects — rather than the regular secondary track, and sits that school's own internal and final assessments instead of the standard Thanaweya Amma papers.

Preparation tips

Because the admission test covers English, Mathematics and Science alongside a general reasoning/IQ component, candidates benefit from practising analytical and logical-reasoning questions (pattern recognition, non-verbal reasoning) in addition to core subject revision, since the test leans on reasoning ability rather than pure recall. Keeping preparatory-stage grades as high as possible also matters directly: the qualifying score itself is a high and competitive bar, so strong, consistent performance across all three Form 3 years is the first requirement before the admission test is even reached.