Public education unions threaten to boycott official exams: "The 9.5/20 decision is a blow to educational justice, and we will not back down"

The public education unions and committees representing contract teachers held a meeting on Sunday evening, July 12, 2026, via Google Meet at 5:00 p.m., during which they discussed the latest developments related to the official examinations and the Cabinet’s decision regarding the adoption of the passing average.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the unions and committees announced that boycotting the official examinations, both secondary and vocational, had become "an utmost necessity and a national and union duty from which there can be no retreat," considering that the authorities had "closed all doors to dialogue as a result of their haphazard decisions."

The statement said:

"The decision issued by the Cabinet to adopt a dubious passing average (9.5/20) is an unjust decision that lacks even the most basic standards of educational justice and undermines the principle of equal opportunity, casting more than 6,000 students into the furnace of uncertainty and class-based and educational discrimination. This decision is not merely a stab at our students; it is a mercy bullet fired at the dignity and standing of public education and the public school, which the state is burdening with the consequences of crises it was never the cause of."

The statement added: "In the face of the Ministry of Education’s insistence on obstinacy and on proceeding with examinations detached from the catastrophic security and psychological reality experienced alike by students and teachers, we have no choice left but confrontation in order to protect the credibility of the official certificate and preserve the teacher’s dignity."

It continued: "What calls for astonishment and condemnation is the adoption of a 9.5 passing average in all grades except the ninth grade. If this indicates anything, it indicates arbitrariness, vindictiveness, and a deepening of inequality and injustice."

Those gathered issued an urgent appeal to lawmakers, stating:

"From our position of educational and national responsibility, we address an urgent plea to the honorable members of Parliament, representatives of the people and guardians of its constitution and justice, and we call on them to take a stand of conscience and history that lifts injustice from the shoulders of both students and teachers.

We call on you to reject this unjust decision outright and not to accept the holding of examinations under the weight of gunfire and psychological and security collapse. What is required of you today is to exercise the highest degree of political and legislative pressure on the government and the Ministry of Education to force an immediate reversal and move toward the only fair and possible exceptional solution: granting official attestations to all candidate students.

Protecting the future of our children and preserving what remains of the dignity of education in Lebanon lies within the scope of your decision and your historic responsibility."

Accordingly, the unions and committees announced the following:

First: a comprehensive and total boycott of all official examination work, including invigilation, supervision, and grading, by both contract and tenured staff, stressing that commitment to this boycott is "a red line and a moral duty to protect the future of our children."

Second: an immediate demand for official attestations through the Cabinet and the Ministry of Education reversing this decision and adopting a fair exceptional solution that grants attestations to all students who submitted candidacy applications in accordance with due process.

Third: taking to the streets and calling on all teachers, both tenured and contract, to participate widely in the mass sit-in to be held in conjunction with the parliamentary session, in order to deliver their voice directly to the people’s representatives.

The statement concluded:

"Colleagues, the 90% rate produced by your survey ballot boxes is a legitimate mandate and a force rising from the ground. Your solidarity today and your inevitable boycott of the examinations are the only safety valve for union action.

Any leniency or retreat today will open the door to further encroachments on your rights, not least the imposition of additional working days without any compensation.

Our voice will not be broken, and public education will not be the weakest link. Together, we rise as one body in defense of the teacher’s dignity and educational justice, to protect the future of our children."