The State Shura Council in Lebanon reversed the decision Minister of Education And the higher education in the interim government, Abbas al-Halabi, has judged not to renew the contract with the head of the active committee for contract professors in Basic formal education Nisreen Shaheen for the academic year 2022-2023 and later, under the pretext of “not needing his services”, and subsequent dismissal from education.
Shaheen, a contract teacher for more than ten years, is known for her struggle in the education sector, for her taking the side of teachers’ issues and rights, and for her bold voice in the face of arbitrary decisions and practices which harm the interests of teachers who are struggling to survive in light of the economic crisis they are going through. Lebanon.
On October 3 Shaheen was informed by the management of the Shakib Arslan Public School in Beirut, where she works, of Al-Halabi’s decision, unprecedented in the history of the official contract, not to renew the contract with her, a step that jurists and colleagues of Shaheen among adjunct professors and collaborators they placed with her in the “arbitrary, harmful and unfair” category.
Today the decision of the State Shura Council came as a “glimmer of hope”, according to what Shaheen told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, underlining that until now he had not yet believed it and adding that the decision has made to weep with joy, “especially since in Lebanon we are only used to injustices” and politicized judicial decisions, and what happened is a victory for the rule of law we dream of”.
Shaheen said, “I felt today for the first time that there is hope, as a citizen and as a teacher, and that there is an impartial judiciary that can govern justly,” noting that the move by the education minister, who falls within the context of silencing mouths, it undoubtedly affected colleagues and created a sense of fear among them and shook up the education sector. However, the decision by the State Shura Council has come to restore trust and hope that teachers are able to raise their voices and obtain their rights without fear or intimidation.
Shaheen did not hide that “the scandalous decision of the education minister made me think at the beginning that Lebanon had ended up somewhere, and that a person who believes in principles and values would be crushed in this country, and that someone who doesn’t have an (unsupported) political back cannot stay in his profession.” The professors with the case, hence I insisted on standing up to what I was exposed to and appealing the decision, so I took my right to law in a last ditch effort, or at least sent a message about the need to enforce our right to get it regardless of the results. And this is what happened.
On Oct. 3, Shaheen had posted on her Facebook page the Education Minister’s decision, attaching it to a comment that she said the Education Minister was taking revenge on her and separating her from education, in a personal decision she signed and asked to be warned, adding in his comment that the minister is taking revenge on her after 11 years of contract, because she has opened corruption files and defended the rights of teachers, students and public schools.
