In light of the worsening educational and financial crisis that the educational sector in Lebanon is experiencing, the Evening Teachers Committee sent a letter to the Minister of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Rima Karami, in which it demanded fairness to the employed professors and their full inclusion in the decision to count the period of forced suspension resulting from the war as the days and hours of work they are entitled to.
The committee confirmed in its letter that the teachers who are employed in the evening shift, including principals, principals, health and educational counselors, and professors, base their demands on the laws and decisions in force, especially the decision issued by the Council of Ministers, which stipulated that the period of forced official suspension resulting from the war be counted among the work days due, given that the suspension of educational institutions was forced and outside the control of workers in the educational sector.
The committee explained that this disruption was general and official and included various educational institutions without exception, and was not the result of negligence or abstention from work by teachers, but rather was imposed by the security reality and official decisions issued by the competent authorities.
She stressed that the same decision was applied to the morning-shift teachers who were hired, whether in terms of calculating the working days or paying the resulting financial dues, considering that excluding evening-shift teachers from this decision, or applying it incompletely to them, constitutes a clear violation of the principle of equality and equal opportunities, and a violation of the rules of administrative justice.
The committee also pointed out that there was a large discrepancy in the calculation of working days during the month of March between one school and another, noting that some schools counted only three working days throughout the month, as a result of forced disruption or due to a lack of technical and administrative preparedness to launch distance education.
She added that the delay in providing teachers with login accounts to the “Teams” platform and other technical problems were completely beyond the teachers’ control, and it is not legally permissible for them to be held accountable for its consequences or have their financial rights deducted because of it.
The committee called on the Minister of Education to explicitly confirm that evening shift teachers are included in the decision to calculate the period of disruption during the war, and to consider it as working days and hours due for the month of March, in addition to adopting a unified and fair standard for calculating working days among all schools, in a way that prevents any discrimination resulting from different operating conditions or the timing of the start of distance education.
It also called for directing the competent authorities to fully implement the decision, including calculating days and hours and disbursing the resulting financial dues without any exceptions or contrary jurisprudence.
The committee concluded by emphasizing that implementing the decision in a fair and uniform manner “is not a favor,” but rather an acquired legal right, which constitutes a guarantee for protecting the dignity of teachers and enhancing confidence in public administration, in addition to preserving the continuity of the educational process in light of the difficult national circumstances.
This move comes at a time when the educational sector in Lebanon is facing unprecedented challenges, as a result of the economic collapse, the repercussions of war, and the repeated disruption of schools, amid mounting demands from teachers to improve their living conditions and guarantee their financial and administrative rights.
