Contract teachers in secondary and elementary education at Lebanese schools have suspended their open strike and decided to return to teaching remotely after a meeting lasting over three hours with the Minister of Education in the caretaker government, Tarek Al-Majdoub.
The delegation presented their demands regarding class duration, class divisions, and the necessity of issuing a mechanism to clarify how to compensate for the hours they have lost. They also requested compensation for the days of September and October due to the delayed start of the academic year, highlighting that it was confirmed the academic year would be extended due to the health situation in the country. Teachers pointed out the threats they face from principals regarding their contracts for both morning and evening classes and demanded a resolution to this matter. Minister Tarek Al-Majdoub emphasized his commitment to completing the academic year and curricula, ensuring that the contracts of the teachers would be honored in full without any reduction in their hours, denying any issuance of certificates as happened last year. He confirmed a decision would be made soon regarding the grading mechanism, whether for remote or blended teaching. Al-Majdoub also assured that the ministry would remain open for contract teachers to address the issues they face, considering their opinions before returning on February 1, regarding whether to maintain only remote teaching or blended education.
The ministry was requested to send schedules for filling in the contractual hours executed for the first semester of the 2020/2021 academic year and then send it to the educational regions and the ministry, and to expedite the payment of dues before Teacher's Day. Earlier today, the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party expressed its rejection of the decision by the Minister of Education and Higher Education to reduce the number of remote teaching hours for contract teachers, which had been previously agreed upon under a formal contract, and not recognizing previously given classes. The party considered this decision comes in painful and difficult economic circumstances for Lebanon, expressing regret over the compensation received by retired teachers who make up the majority of teachers in Lebanon. The party called on the Minister of Education to retract his decision and demanded a clear stance offering guarantees to contract teachers to compensate for the hours removed from the current academic year, ensuring a decent life fitting for educators. The party also expressed solidarity with the teachers, announcing its support for any decision that guarantees their rights and cooperation between teachers in both the public and private sectors.
Earlier today, MP Ihab Hamadeh from the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc confirmed that Lebanon suffers from the fragility of the educational sector and from the lack of realistic solutions to the problems. He stated that the state does not prioritize the educational sector, and the universities that have raised their tuition today are the same ones that raised loud slogans during the protests. He affirmed that increasing university fees constitutes a violation of legal provisions in Lebanon and called for the preparation of a draft law requiring universities to adopt the national currency for their fees. He stated: What private universities are doing legally undermines the financial status of the state, adding that the Central Bank and banks had set circumventing conditions during the implementation of the student dollar law.
Earlier in the month, President Michel Aoun welcomed any assistance the European Union could provide to Lebanon in implementing the economic recovery plan, which will be a priority for the upcoming government. A European Union delegation in Lebanon had earlier confirmed that nearly 10,000 Lebanese students studying abroad are enduring severe hardships and awaiting their inevitable fate after all options for continuing their studies have been closed off while awaiting the swift implementation of Law No. 193 related to the student dollar. They proposed solutions to this dilemma through two options: the first option takes into account the economic crisis by facilitating the payment of $10,000 for each student in installments, with the aim of keeping students in their universities before it is too late, specifically before the end of the current year, otherwise they will be expelled from their universities. The second option is to temporarily work with the Central Bank's circular directed to exchange dealers regarding students, with some modifications to pay $5,000 for each student meeting the criteria of the student dollar law 193, but at an exchange rate of 2500 to the dollar, with a need to regulate the currency exchange operations from exchange shops (Class A) by forming a committee from the parents' association of students abroad and the exchange dealers' syndicate, noting that previous experiences with them were unsuccessful due to corruption issues away from supervision. The delegation pointed out that the exchange dealers only handed parents amounts of either $300 or $500 and only once, and as of now, no second transfers have been allowed, knowing that these amounts only cover expenses for three years.
