BEIRUT: The Union Coordination Committee Monday rejected any blame for Education Minister Elias Bou Saab’s decision to issue passing certificates for students who sat for official exams, saying that they had opposed the move from the start.
In response to the Cabinet-backed decision, which was endorsed to counter UCC’s continued boycott of grading the exams, UCC head Hanna Gharib said: “We are not embarrassed by the issuing of passing certificates. The step was proposed by the minister alone, and not by the UCC.”
Describing the grant of passing certificates to all students regardless of ability as “un-educational,” Gharib said “the one who took that decision assumes full responsibility with the council of ministers.”
“We have always stood against issuing the certificates. After three years of pressing for our rightful demands we do not feel any embarrassment. We did not receive any guarantee for our rights and the responsible [party] for boycotting the grading of exams is the Ministry of Education and the state. The students are registered with the state, not with the teachers.”
He praised the united front that the UCC has put up to counter the minister’s pressures, and called for continuing the battle for teachers’ rights, even if this year’s round might be lost.
“We should not underestimate what happened. It is not only a matter of issuing passing certificates, but we should look at what’s behind the decision. They simply failed to infiltrate our position or break our decision, and the retaliation was issuing the passes,” Gharib said.
He argued that the UCC was defending its mere existing by not budging on its decision to boycott correcting the tests. “We should not back down under the pressure. If the minister is trying to burn the card we hold, we should retort by holding on to this card. They cannot issue passing certificates every year.”
The teachers’ strike aims at pressuring Parliament to pass a long-awaited salary raise for public sector workers. But political factions in the country are divided on how to finance the hike.
Lebanon has not had to resort to issuing passing certificates in lieu of grading the exams since the end of the Civil War in 1990. Passing certificates were issued on several occasions during the 15-year-long civil strife, either because exams could not be held or because rounds of fighting prevented corrections.
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