All over Egypt, high school students spent a stressful night before their second language exam, due to irregular power outages during Sunday and Monday. Inside Mohamed Ali’s house, near Bani Khaled village, following Malawi town, Minya governorate, the electricity went out at 01:00 am, the thing that affected his much-needed sleep before the second language exam the following day.
Alaa, a student at Al-Shaheed Mohamed Hamed School, didn’t get any rest during the power outage that extended from 01:00 am until 03:00 am, telling “Al-Minyawiya”, I stayed awake until 05:00 am, I rested for only two hours after that, then woke up and went to the exam, and of course the lack of sleep affected my performance in the exam”.
This wasn’t the only power outage that occurred in Alaa’s house at that day, the electricity was out over the entire village from 03:00 pm to 04:30 pm, confirming that this was against electricity cutbacks schedule, “the usual assigned time for the power outage is from 03:00 pm until 05:00 pm, and I was trying to adapt to that timing throughout the past period”, as Alaa was used to go to his house’s roof to study during the two-hours-power-outage, “but cutting electricity during the night hindered me from studying”.
On Sunday, 23rd June, 2024, both Ministries of Electricity and Petroleum announced increasing power cutbacks up to three hours instead of two, for a period of two days: Sunday, 23rd June and Monday, 24th June. The statement clarified that this comes as a way to maintain the operational efficiency of power plants and natural gas holding companies in light of the rising temperatures.
Everybody suffered from the power outage crisis during the past few days, affecting particularly high school students. Omar Salah, a student in Al-Musheer Safi El-Din Abu Shanaaf Secondary School for Boys in Minya, thinks that the Ministry of Electricity do not put in mind the pressure high school students are suffering from during this period, adding that power cutback wastes his time, hindering him from studying during the outage hours.
Omar suffered from the power outage during Monday for three hours, totally upset he said, “all high school students are upset and asking themselves if the Ministry of Electricity is aware that this is an exam night, and we need every minute to study”. Power outages affect Omar psychologically, he calls the President and parliament to demand stopping power cutbacks during exams, “put your children in our shoes, and see how much power outage would affect them and their mentality”.
Today, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stated that, as part of efforts to rationalise electricity consumption, commercial stores are to close at 10:00 pm, starting next week, which is perhaps a sign of reducing periods of power outages.
On candlelight, Salma Mohamed spent her second language exam night, suffering from the summer heat that reached 44 degrees Celsius, it was a night the high school student will not easily forget, despite getting used to power outages for months, but to have electricity outage for a longer period than usual and irregularly had intensified her anxiety.
