Education Minister Tarek Al-Majzoub advised private universities not to overstep the official LBP/USD exchange rate for their students’ payments, considering the challenging times that Lebanon is going through.
Heading a meeting of the Higher Education Council on Wednesday, Minister Al-Majzoub instructed private universities to adopt the Lebanese pound for their students’ dues and to keep their premiums equal to their original values.
To achieve this, the minister said that these universities should adopt the official exchange rate of the Lebanese pound against the U.S. dollar, which remains unchanged at 1,515.
He also recommended that the universities hold entrance exams for newcomers while considering the material that was finished in the first semester of the third secondary year, according to the choice of any branch of the secondary certificate.
Additionally, Al-Majzoub urged university administrators to provide new students with the supplementary material that they turn out to need in order to continue studying their majors, throughout their first year of university education.
This is noting that Lebanon’s 2019/2020 school year was a challenging one for the students as well as the educational body, due to the prevailing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the prolonged lockdown that resulted from it.
Moving on, as the LBP/USD exchange rate pushes towards 10,000 in the black market, registration for the 2020/2021 school year has begun in schools across Lebanon.
With that in mind, Minister Al-Majzoub released a circular prohibiting administrators of private schools from specifying school premiums in a currency other than the Lebanese pound, “in accordance with what is included in the school budget.”
The circular also asserted that students in these schools must not be obliged to purchase books and school supplies from the school or prevented from using used books that are still applicable.