The work of the “Educational Conference: Towards a Safe School Year”, in preparation for the physical and virtual academic year 2022-2023, was concluded in the capital of the south, Sidon, which was organized by the Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development and the Sidon and Neighborhood School Network, under the auspices of the Minister of Education in the caretaker government. Abbas Al-Halabi at Rafic Hariri High School under the slogan “to teach shared responsibility”.
The aim of the conference was to present and approach the challenges, problems and difficulties faced by educational institutions, professors, parents and students in formal, private and professional education at the gates of the new academic year and to explore solutions to them.
The first session was held under the umbrella of networking and planning, and the session began with the presentation of the general coordinator of the school network in Sidon, Nabil Bawab, regarding it. zoom” by the international trainer and educational consultant Ali Ezz El-Din, entitled “The Professional Learning Society and Twenty-First Century Skills”.
The second session was under the title “School Challenges and Solutions,” and was moderated by the director of Bahaa El-Din Hariri School, head of the South Branch of the Teachers’ Syndicate, Osama Arnaout, in which a number of school principals, parents’ councils and committees in public and private education, in addition to some students, spoke.
After the interventions, Minister Al-Halabi affirmed: “We want to open the school year, and we have no other choice. For this to succeed, two things must be present: the first is the logistical and financial aspect, and the biggest burden is transportation allowances, and the second is what you called the “royalty,” declaring, on the issue of teachers’ rights, and regarding the arrears that “at the beginning of the year we announce what matters have been made available.”
With regard to banks, he said: “We went with the general manager and the director of vocational education to the governor of the bank and agreed on a matter that remained only to be confirmed in writing. There are still two types of funds in the school funds: the money we pumped from the aid that we received last year, which is hundreds of billions of pounds, and we have bank accounts in dollars, and both of them we will find a solution for.. Also, we agreed with the governor that teachers’ incentives would be available to all without a ceiling, and he pledged to give banks cash. until he takes what is due to him in one go.” But there is a problem with vocational education because donors do not consider it a priority, although we consider it a priority, and therefore this endeavor must include it. We also have a problem at the Lebanese University, and this needs a conference alone.”
With regard to private schools, he addressed them with four messages: “No to the dollarization of premiums, Law 515 talks regarding premiums in Lebanese pounds, balancing private schools in Lebanese pounds, and it must include all the aid that comes, and I asked schools that everything that this administration pays for the benefit of teachers must be That it be in the school’s budgets.. and whoever violates the school budget will be rejected and not approved, and the director’s signature will be withdrawn and referred to the Dispute Resolution Court and request scrutiny, and if we have to, we will go to the parliament to develop special legislation.”
Hariri concluded the second session and the conference with a speech in which she thanked Al-Halabi and all the participating partners in the educational process. She said, “There is no magic wand, but there are steps we can take, especially the school calendar,” revealing that “we will follow up on demand issues, but the most important point is to maintain educational presence in schools, and this requires cooperation from parents, the educational body, all employees, and the ministry is the umbrella for education and will remain like that”.
