Public school teachers during a sit-in in Tripoli on Dec.17, 2025. Photo provided by our correspondent Michel Hallak.
BEIRUT — Public sector teachers staged protests Wednesday in parts of north and south Lebanon to denounce their deteriorating economic conditions and demand salary increases, according to local correspondents.
Teachers are calling for salaries to be multiplied by 37, the inclusion of all allowances in the base salary and an increase in the hourly wage for contract teachers, according to our correspondent.
In the north, teachers organized sit-ins outside financial administration offices in Tripoli and Halba (Akkar). In Halba, a delegation of teachers met with Akkar Governor Imad Labaki and submitted a memorandum outlining their most urgent demands.
“Faced with the deterioration of our social conditions, our demands are unified,” said Saadallah Bayda, speaking on behalf of the teachers. He said the demands have been presented to parliamentary blocs and ministers, who have responded positively.
The goal, he said, is to integrate the various increases into the base salary so that total pay reaches about 49 percent of what teachers earned in 2019, before the economic crisis.
Moussa Hanna, a board member of the Retired Primary School Teachers’ Association, said the objective is “to restore salaries to their pre-2019, pre-crisis level.”
Lebanon’s public education sector has been battered by the financial and economic crisis that erupted in 2019, followed by the coronavirus pandemic and the 2023–2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Public school students currently attend classes only four days a week, and teachers have staged multiple strikes over the past year.
Unions representing tenured teachers at the primary, intermediate and secondary levels called for a general strike on Wednesday, Dec. 17, to pressure authorities to urgently address their worsening conditions caused by the collapse of the Lebanese lira and to adopt a new salary scale.
‘Justice for teachers’
In south Lebanon, dozens of teachers and public school principals held a sit-in outside the regional financial administration offices at the Saida Serail, according to our correspondent.
They called for “full and complete justice for all categories of teachers, without exception or discrimination,” warning that further escalation would follow if authorities fail to respond.
Yahya Rakin, education coordinator for the South and Nabatieh regions, said school principals are no longer able, “administratively or even on a human level,” to protect staff or convince them to continue working amid what he described as systematic neglect.
Asked about the strike during a tour of the Bekaa on Tuesday, Education Minister Rima Karameh said she was “concerned for the students.” She said she remains in ongoing dialogue with teachers to find solutions that preserve their rights while protecting students in public schools.
