A 6-year-old girl won a court lawsuit against the Egyptian Ministry of Education after a primary school in Beheira governorate refused her admission in the second grade.

The presiding judge of the Alexandria Administrative Court, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab Khafagy, ordered that the little girl be awarded LE (Egyptian pounds) 3,000 in compensation for the moral damage she has suffered as a result of being denied admission to the second grade by Abu El Matamir school despite passing the first grade.

According to the Akhbar El You daily, “I enjoy learning and am an excellent student.”I can also draw very well, and here are some examples of my work.I was 5 years and several months old [at the time] and had completed grade 1 at my Wadi El Natroun school, where I was rated first.

“However, my father relocated our residency to Abu El Matamir.”

In the same village, one of my neighbours accompanied me.

Her father was a prominent official who was able to enrol her at a nearby school, but the principal of the Abu al-Matamir school told me, ‘You are too young [to be in grade 2] and either re-join grade 1, or you must go to Wadi al-Natrun every day.’That is why I informed my father that we needed to see a judge.”

The sitting judge then asked her, “What made you wait a whole year to complain in order to force the school to enrol you in second grade?”

“I didn’t want to burden my father with the costs of the litigation,” she explained.

He is a farmer who does not make a lot of money.

But I, Mr Judge, saved 100 Egyptian pounds from my pocket money for the entire year, forcing me to retake grade 1 courses.

Following a hearing on her case, the court ruled that the Ministry of Education give the little girl LE 3,000 in moral reparation.

The judge further stated that his decision is unassailable.