A school in Abra, South Lebanon. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
Urgent Matters Judge Ahmad Mezher has overturned decisions taken by schools in Nabatieh requiring parents to pay the full amount of school fees in dollars, the state-run National News Agency reported Tuesday.
Judge Mezher's decision came "following a request from the guardian of two students at the Nabatieh Evangelical School," the NNA explained.
This request called for "the freezing of tuition fees for the 2023-24 school year, as well as the setting of fee amounts in advance, in dollars, before the start of the school year." It also requested that a portion of the tuition fees be payable in Lebanese lira.
Mezher's decision is immediately enforceable, and any violation "could be punished by a fine of at least LL100 million for each day of delay," the NNA added.
The sum of LL 100 million corresponds, at the parallel market rate on Tuesday, to around $1,075.
The education sector has been hit hard by the unprecedented economic crisis in which Lebanon has been mired since 2019.
Public and private teachers went on open strike last December, and while some of them returned to work at the end of February following a decision by the sector's leagues and unions; others denounced this decision and continued their strike protest.