Egyptian star student scored zero in all her exams

Family and supporters of one of Egypt’s best-performing high school students are claiming that she was cheated after the teenager failed to earn a single mark in seven exam papers.

Having scored almost perfect marks in previous years, Mariam Malak expected similar results this year.

Hoping to study medicine, she was shocked when her results arrived. She not only failed all seven papers, but was given zero in every one.

"I couldn't hear anyone, I couldn't speak. I thought how can that happen? How can I get zero?" she told the BBC.

A member of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, at first her family thought she had been the victim of religious discrimination.

However now they believe that the issue was corruption and the teenager’s case has become a cause célèbre in Egypt.

Thousands have rallied behind her on social media with a Facebook page supporting her case being “liked” by more than 30,000 people.

The Egyptian education ministry said that a handwriting test showed it was Mariam who wrote the offending exam papers.

But a second handwriting test, performed on Egyptian television, showed that the handwriting on the exam papers was markedly different.

The family has raised Mariam’s plight with Egypt’s prime minster, Ibrahim Mahlab, who has promised to look into the case.