Director General of Education and examining commission head, Imad Achkar, right, and two colleagues, gestures at a student undergoing his brevet exam, Saturday. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Director General of Education and examining commission head Imad Achkar conducted a survey of brevet examination test centers Saturday and, noting electricity outages in certain centers, called on private generator operators to “keep generators operational during the examination period,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• “We faced difficulties on the ground, including the absence of electricity in a number of official test centers, so I’m addressing a call to local authorities through media outlets,” Achkar said.
• Responding to fears that teachers would strike during the exam-grading period, Achkar said that meetings with teachers’ unions showed “no signs of opposition” to conducting the exams or grading them, noting that financial incentives had been secured for grading.
• “The past two years have seen periods of interruption in education, and our children’s loss of educational opportunities has become great. Therefore it has become necessary for children to feel the importance of going through a nationwide assessment,” Achkar added. Saturday marks the beginning of official examinations for brevet, state diplomas for the completion of middle school education, which had been suspended for the past two years. The exam was amended to include only five subjects instead of nine.