Education Minister Rima Karami explained that those in charge of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education have been monitoring educational difficulties and following the course of both distance learning and in-person instruction, in order to closely understand and study the overall educational landscape in the country and move forward with continuous preparations to complete the file of official examinations and hold them in the coming المرحلة with all the abilities and excellence of students and the educational staff, presenting the best image of our Lebanese society in its resilience and distinctive character among neighboring countries.
Karami stressed in an interview with Voice of Lebanon that a series of near-daily meetings is being held with the aim of settling the timetable for the official examinations. Those in charge of the Educational Center will conduct a field survey to reveal the extent to which private and public schools have covered all subjects in the curriculum, and a professional task force has been assigned to complete this in the coming weeks. She pointed to the readiness of the Ministry of Education’s departments to hold the Brevet certificate examinations in a new and unconventional way, without implicitly canceling them, in a manner that would conclude this transitional phase by the best possible means and grant an official certificate for what both students and teachers have accomplished.
Accordingly, and still according to Karami, the educational staff and students have been asked to be fully prepared for the inevitability of holding the official examinations and not to rely on the option of granting attestations. Field approaches, the administrative and logistical orientation, and response resources have taken into account the economic, political, security, and social crises currently worsening in the country, as well as the need to pay psychological attention to displaced students and their parents and to secure the most basic requirements for a dignified life for teachers and enable them to carry out their important educational mission.
She added: "My heart and eyes are set on the priority of reviving the capacities of public schools, to the point that students in private schools will feel 'jealous' of the interventions, assistance, and facilities that will be provided to the former." She appealed to all those in charge of educational associations to be patient a little longer, continue their long struggle, and not hold students and official examinations hostage. "I am doing my utmost to stand by teachers, secure additional financial resources for them, achieve the goals they seek, and place them on the Cabinet table for approval."
Karami also said that efforts are underway to fill vacancies in leadership positions in the public education sector. "We have laid out the broad outlines of a mechanism for conducting interviews and computerized exams for nearly 350 vacant positions, and we have also organized a package of training courses for 650 principals aimed at improving their capabilities and overall performance and consolidating their role as a developing educational authority." She said officials in the educational offices of political parties would notice a new approach in terms of finding serious and effective solutions, carrying out the necessary diagnosis of related problems, and working according to educational and scientific standards recognized globally, where there is no room for "destructive politics." She asked whether it would be better for her to receive educational delegations, meet them for a few brief minutes, and fail to fulfill what she promised, or to raise their voice loudly and bring their rightful demands to light—particularly in the relatively complex issue of the full-time status of Lebanese University professors, for which she said the foundations of full cooperation and coordination had been established with the university’s board of directors, leading to fairness for a large number of deserving teaching staff and the securing of the necessary financial allocations.
In conclusion, Karami announced the imminent issuance of decrees related to the new curricula, which meet international specifications and standards and will be adopted gradually. She said they would earn the satisfaction and pride of Lebanese society as a whole and would be based on consolidating the principles of freedom of expression, intellectual and sound scientific criticism, and the use of appropriate, non-offensive language.
