REPORT: UCC adamant on boycotting exams correction as Minister Bou Saab calls for meeting on Tuesday

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab called Monday on the committees overseeing the correction of the official exams to attend a meeting to be held Tuesday morning at the ministry’s headquarters in order to draft the basis of which the exams would be corrected.

"If around 500 or 600 teachers were present at the meeting, the assessment will kick off," the minister stated.

In this regard, Bou Saab warned the teachers, saying that if they failed to attend the meeting, he will start distributing passing certificates to the students on Wednesday.

Commenting on the Union Coordinating Committee’s decision to continue its boycott of the official exams correction, until the pay scale law is passed, the minister said that this decision is “a suicidal move.”

In this context, the UCC urged Minister Bou Saab to support their decision and abstain from issuing passing certificates to the students, calling on the parliamentary blocs to pass the series of ranks and salaries.

Accordingly, the committee called for a general and comprehensive strike to be staged on both Tuesday and Wednesday, in a bid to exert pressure on authorities.

For his part, member of the UCC Hanna Gharib told LBCI that the committee will hold a meeting later today to evaluate the latest developments, before informing the minister of their final decision.

Also on Monday, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab held a series of meetings at the ministry’s headquarters, in order to discuss the issue of the correction of the official exams.

The meetings included the directors of high schools of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, as well as delegates representing the Association of Secondary School Teachers, the committee overseeing official exams and the Union Coordinating Committee.

In the same context, the Progressive Socialist Party called on the teachers to end the boycott of official exams’ correction.

On Friday Minister Bou Saab granted teachers an ultimatum regarding the situation pertaining to the correction of state official exams. Bou Saab had said that if teachers fail to correct and asses the results of the exams by Monday, he would have have to issue passing certificates to all students who had undertaken the exams, without having them corrected by concerned teachers.

The cabinet backed Bou Saab’s decision to issue the certificates, tasking the minister to take all necessary measures to help students in their admission to colleges and high schools.

The minister pointed out that should the teachers begin correcting exams by Monday, the decision to issue the certificates would be revoked.

The UCC has been urging the authorities to pass a public sector wage hike for three years now, calling for a 121 percent increase in salaries for civil servants and teachers, as well as other benefits.

Parliament has failed to pass the pay scale so far due to disagreement between political factions and lack of quorum, while recent comments by deputies from all parties confirmed that the draft law would not be passed anytime soon.