Internet disruptions are wreaking havoc with online learning. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Students residing in Doueir and Sharqieh villages in Nabatieh are appealing to Education Minister Abbas Halabi as they continue to face disrupted digital learning after their lessons were shifted online last week — due to rising numbers of COVID-19 cases — despite the services of the state telecommunications company Ogero having been interrupted for almost two weeks now in these areas, according to the National News Agency.
Here’s what we know:
• “The internet is a daily need to follow our lessons, and you are the minister who is entrusted with our support and assistance to follow up on the current academic year,” the students articulated as they continue to have no internet access amid fuel and electricity shortages.
• Electricity cuts have continuously wreaked havoc on an already shaky communications infrastructure, including mobile and home internet in Lebanon. Ogero and the two state-owned telecommunications firms, Alfa and touch, have also been impacted by fuel scarcity and ongoing maintenance concerns.
• The education sector in Lebanon is already struggling, with the majority of Lebanon’s public schools not opening this week, according to Manal Hdaife, a member of the Public Primary Schools Teachers League, who spoke to L’Orient Today. Hdaife explained that 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,” which include increasing their salaries and transportation payments.