Minister announces two-week delay in reopening of public schools

BEIRUT — Public schools will not open for another two weeks, the education minister announced Sunday evening, less than 24 hours before the scheduled start of the school year.

Here’s what we know:

    • Education Minister Abbas Halabi announced Sunday evening that public schools would not open until Oct. 11, two weeks from tomorrow. The school year had been scheduled to begin tomorrow morning.

    • The decision was taken “in order to continue the constructive dialogue with the representatives of the teachers,” the minister’s statement said.

    • Most private schools have already resumed classes, our sister publication L’Orient-Le Jour reports.

    • Teachers’ salaries have been devastated by the lira’s depreciation and many struggle to find the fuel needed to commute to work.

    • Students’ education has been disrupted by the country’s multitude of crises, as well as the global coronavirus pandemic that has shuttered schools worldwide for much of the last year and a half.