Worries about further delays in the public school year's start date are pronounced among parents who moved their children to public schools for financial reasons. (Credit: Marc Fayad)
BEIRUT — The majority of Lebanon’s public schools did not open on Monday, Manal Hdaife, a member of the Public Primary Schools Teachers League, told L’Orient Today, as the teachers and schools are “committed to the decision taken by the committee of contract teachers in public primary and secondary schools on Saturday to boycott the return to their jobs until the education ministry meets their labor demands.”
Here’s what we know:
• Hdaife told L’Orient Today that the committee will meet again towards the end of the week, “but it seems like the decision will mostly lean toward not opening next week either, until the ministry gives a definite promise and results.”
• The teachers' committee condemned the education ministry and Premier Najib Mikati's cabinet, in a statement released by the National News Agency, for failing to carry out their obligations and being "clinically dead" and "disconnected from reality."
• According to the statement, engaging in a debate with authorities to remedy the situation is pointless since "everyone understands the problem is a lack of [state] funding."
• “Based on [authorities’] neglect of public schools, their teachers and students, the committee confirms there will be no return to school before contracted and assistant teachers are paid their dues, and these dues are dollarized to match the insane rise in the exchange rate,” the statement concluded.
• Despite initial instructions from the Education Ministry to begin classes on January 10, most public schools did not reopen after the holidays this past Monday.