Students at a public school in Bazourieh, south Lebanon, on July 3, 2024. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L’Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Education Minister Rima Karameh on Wednesday issued a circular allowing private universities to organize make-up exams for students from areas targeted by Israeli strikes or forced displacement who were unable to sit for their finals.
The measure is intended to ensure "equal opportunity" among students and to spare those living in high-risk areas from having to travel to examination centers "at the risk of their safety," according to the circular.
"The students concerned must be exempted from the obligation to take final examinations as long as they consider themselves exposed to a real danger, and no form of pressure or incentive should be exerted to compel them to attend examination centers," the minister said.
In-person sessions by Oct. 30
The make-up examinations will be held in person and must be organized no later than Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, according to the circular. It also urges private universities to provide all possible educational resources, including remote learning, for students to continue their studies during this period.
"Private universities must monitor the situation of the students concerned and document each case, while providing the necessary academic, psychological, social, and financial support to help them overcome the exceptional circumstances they face and maintain a level of preparedness comparable to that of their peers," the text states.
Israeli attacks and threats have displaced over one million people since March 2, and the state has turned many public schools into shelters for displaced families.
The measure comes one week after an Israeli strike on their car killed Lebanese University student Theodossia Karam, her father James, and brother Tony, as they drove back from Beirut, where she had just completed her end-of-year exams. The family was returning home to Qlaya, in the Marjayoun district.
A meeting of Parliament's education committee to decide the fate of the official baccalaureate exams, which have so far been maintained, is scheduled for Thursday in the presence of the minister.
Last month, the French Ministry of National Education decided to cancel the written and oral middle school certificate examinations for ninth-grade students, brevet, and the French baccalaureate examinations for high school seniors in Lebanon. They were replaced by continuous assessment grades or annual averages.
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