Cabinet to subsidize the cost of school books to Lebanese and non-Lebanese children || Newspapers (Arabic)

During its meeting of Thursday October 4th, the Lebanese Cabinet endorsed the allocation of ten billion LBP to subsidize the cost of school books.  Of these, eight billion will benefit Lebanese school children and the remaining two billion will benefit non-Lebanese children.  According to the estimates of the Ministry of Education, 50,000 non-Lebanese students enrolled in public schools are expected to benefit from this decision during the current scholastic year.  The current Minister of Education, Mr. Hassan Diab, indicated that he will issue a memorandum requesting all public school to deliver free schoolbooks to both Lebanese and non-Lebanese children enrolled in public schools.   The Minister confirmed that the Ministry will reimburse those who have already purchased their books.  To be noted that this landmark decision has, alas, not refrained some private schools to request their students to purchase additional books under the guise that the state issued books are “weak” and, as such students need additional “complementary books”.  It is also worth stating that under the law, schools are obligated to follow the national educational system and the attendant books issues by CERD.

Source: Al Akhbar