A bill seeks to grant permanent status to contract teachers under certain conditions

The League of Contract Teachers in Lebanon’s basic public education sector (CTLP) on Tuesday presented a bill seeking to grant permanent status to contract teachers in the public basic education sector (preschool, primary, and complementary.)

The text, "supported by five opposition MPs, Halimeh Kaakour, Paula Yacoubian, Ibrahim Mneimneh, Firas Hamdane, and Yassine Yassine, is marked as a double emergency. It will soon be submitted to the parliamentary Education Committee by its chairman, Hassan Mrad," Nisrine Chahine, president of the CTLP, told L’Orient-Le Jour following a joint news conference at Parliament with the five lawmakers.

This initiative comes amid broader demands from public sector employees whose salaries have been crippled by the financial meltdown since 2019 and have yet to be properly adjusted — aside from a few cosmetic measures. Since June 2025, the minimum wage has stood at 28 million LL, or the equivalent of $312. Public education contract teachers, estimated at more than 16,000 people, are in a particularly precarious situation. Unable to afford to go on strike, they are only paid for hours actually taught — a situation comparable to "zero-hour" workers. While they have been granted transportation allowances for three days a week, they are not entitled to social security, health coverage, or even end-of-service indemnities. According to Chahine, basic public education employs 15,000 contract teachers.

The bill, which L’Orient-Le Jour reviewed, contains a single article. This article provides, "exceptionally and by legislative measure adopted by the Council of Ministers," for granting permanent status to substitute teachers in the basic public education sector, "regardless of the nature of their contract," provided they meet several conditions. Candidates for tenure must be employed on hourly teaching contracts, have worked for at least five years, accumulated at least 3,000 teaching hours, and still be on the job at the time the law is published.

Academically, they must hold either a university degree, an officially recognized academic or professional diploma in Lebanon, or the Lebanese baccalaureate (or its equivalent) — provided at least one year has passed since they first signed their teaching contract.

The teachers concerned must also complete and pass a pedagogical training of at least three months at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Lebanese University, as determined by the Ministry of Education. After this training, they are required to pass an exam in their teaching specialty, with passing this exam a prerequisite for becoming tenured. This requirement has caused significant controversy, with many long-time substitute teachers refusing to take an exam to obtain permanent status.

Finally, under the bill, tenure will be granted according to need, based on seniority, and will be spread out over four consecutive annual cohorts.