BEIRUT: Lawmakers convened Tuesday morning to discuss legalizing the Education Ministry's recent decision to issue passing certificates for all students in light of a boycott on correcting the official exams by teachers.
Headed by Future MP Bahia Hariri, the Education Parliamentary Committee met around 10:30 a.m. at Nijmeh Square to formulate a draft law to present to Parliament for a vote.
Speaking before the start of the meeting, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab said the decision to issue passing certificates had already gone into effect and the draft law "would retroactively legalize them."
"I am only thinking of the students and nothing else," he told reporters.
Bou Saab refused to budge on his decision, which he announced Saturday, even after the Association of Private School Teachers said Monday that it would end its boycott and correct official exams to safeguard "Lebanon's quality of education."
The teachers' move went against the Union Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization representing teachers and civil servants that has been at the forefront of protests and strikes to pressure officials to pass the wage hike bill.
In a bid to pressure Parliament to approve a new salary scale, teachers have refused to grade the official exams, prompting Bou Saab, backed by the Cabinet and various political blocs, to issue the certificate, a move not made since the end of Lebanon's Civil War in 1990.
The UCC is expected to hold a meeting and make a final decision on the issue of correcting exams, with many seeing the teachers' move as a sign of rift in the union.
For the past three years, the UCC has spearheaded ongoing nationwide protests and observed open-ended strikes crippling the public sector and disrupting schools.
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