Collective Action

Last month, tens of students were told that they failed their baccalaureate and brevet exams after the initial results were changed, drawing the ire of parents.

After announcing the grades of the Second Exceptional Sessions of the Official Baccalaureate and Brevet Exams earlier this year, the results were retracted and published fifteen minutes later. The newly published results showed a number of students failing grades after initially passing.

Both parents and students have been protesting at the gates of the Ministry of Higher Education, demanding a recount, negotiations, or a statement of any kind regarding the falsely corrected papers.

Earlier yesterday, parents joined angry university students who were not informed of tuition currency change from Lebanese Pounds to U.S. dollars at their universities. The two sides chanting for different demands came together with signs and speakers demanding “Education, freedom, and social equality.”
As for the university students protesting the currency change, Farah Baba, one of the organizers of the protest from Mada, a political youth network, explained how this simple change will influence many students, and even halt their education due to a tuition increase.

“Since all people earn their checks in Lebanese Pounds, the exchange of LBP to USD will force the tuition to increase,” Baba told Annahar. “We want higher quality from the Ministry of Higher Education, the public sector and public schools are more than neglected. And because private institutions are private, the ministry gives them full freedom to do what they want with the tuition fees.”

With multiple flyers, banners, and posters from the AUB Secular Club, the two crowds chanted in a unanimous voice, “Free the education,” “Education is not a commodity” and “Riyad Salame is commercializing our education.”