The stakes are always high for high-school seniors in Egypt during university entrance examinations, but this year’s exam season has sparked national scandal amid several allegations of corruption, Agence France-Presse reported.

The dreaded thanawiya amma, which is roughly equivalent to the SAT, is a rite of passage that determines the future for children from low- and middle-income families, who spend months — not to mention a small fortune on private tutoring — to prepare. A high grade on the thanawiya amma can mean social and economic mobility, as it determines entry to highly sought-after programs at the country’s free public universities, like engineering and medicine.

But this year, reports have surfaced that some exam questions weren’t on the curriculum and that copies of the exam were leaked in advance to rich and powerful families, the news agency reported. What’s more, the country’s public prosecutor announced last week that 19 people would face trial for leaking exam papers. The suspects include a police officer, a headmaster, and three Education Ministry employees.

Newspaper columnists, teachers, and academics have joined together to demand answers on behalf of roughly 800,000 students who took the exams — and to demand that the tests be given again. —Andrew Mills