With the start of the new academic year and the increase in complaints regarding textbook prices, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education clarified the limits of its powers to price books approved in private schools and monitor their contents, stressing that the responsibility for pricing varies depending on the entity producing the book and its source.
The Ministry’s media office said, in a statement, that the Complaints Office receives reviews and inquiries from citizens regarding the prices of books approved by private schools, and requests for the Ministry’s intervention to reduce them.
He explained that books produced by private publishing houses in Lebanon and approved by many private schools are priced by the Ministry of Economy and Trade in coordination with the School Publishers Syndicate, and therefore the Ministry of Education does not have legal authority in the pricing process. He pointed out that in previous stages, the ministry was playing the role of mediator, informally, between the Ministry of Economy and the union with the aim of making prices as acceptable as possible.
As for the contents of locally produced books, the statement confirmed that the authority to review them belongs to the Educational Center for Research and Development, which reviews drafts of writing to ensure their conformity with the approved curricula, and that they do not incite sectarian strife or harm Lebanon’s relations with brotherly and friendly countries.
Regarding books issued by international publishing houses and imported for the benefit of schools adopting foreign curricula or scientific books accredited outside Lebanon, the Ministry pointed out that their prices are often high due to the price of the source, shipping costs, customs, transportation, and library profits, stressing that the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Economy has no authority to price them.
She added that the contents of imported books are not subject to Lebanese conditions, as they are mainly produced by countries and societies outside Lebanon, and that the authority to review them and allow their entry belongs to the General Directorate of Public Security, which includes a body specialized in reading books, magazines, and publications imported into Lebanon and granting permission to import and approve them.
As for the national textbook series produced by the Educational Center for Research and Development, they are accredited in public schools and in a number of private schools, in whole or in part, and the Center alone is responsible for setting their prices without the intervention of the Ministry of Economy or any other party. According to the statement, they are low-priced books that do not aim for profit.
The Ministry indicated that the Lebanese Constitution, after the Taif Agreement, restricted the Educational Center to the task of writing and printing the Unified History Book and the Unified National Education and Civic Education Book, and prevented private publishing houses from producing any of them.
She pointed out that the book on national education and civic upbringing was produced and provided to public and private schools, while there was no previous agreement on a unified history book.
The statement concluded by affirming that the unified history book will be produced and written in conjunction with the issuance of the developed educational curricula, according to a new approach that includes various narratives of the events of Lebanese history.
