By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.
Tripoli, 7 July 2014:
The Ministry of Education announced yesterday that teachers will be on holiday from now until Friday, . . .[restrict]8 August, following Ramadan and the Eid holiday break. It has issued Resolutions Nos. 946 and 947 setting schedules and classes and exams for basic and secondary schools, which include teachers’ holiday during Ramadan.
The Ministry has also announced, under the same resolutions, that 10 July will be the last day for registering 1st year primary school pupils across Libya.
The return of teachers to schools does not mean that state schools, due to begin again in September, are restarting early. Traditionally, teachers have turned up in school holiday time, and if there are any preparations needing done for the new semester, they do them; if not, they go home.
It is reported however, that the ministry is looking to reopen schools early in a bid to enable pupils to catch up with classes because of time lost during the year.
The ministry is also reported to be studying a proposal to go for a six-day school week, including Saturdays.
Meanwhile, 35 million new school textbooks are being printed and will be available for the 2014-2015 academic year in bookshops by the end of July, according to the ministry
It stated on its website that it has given the contract to a local printing company. The reason for the new edition, it said, was not because of major changes in the curriculum, although there are some, but because of errors and books falling apart.
According to Ahmed Ben Suleiman, Director General of the ministry’s Centre for Curriculum and Educational Research, significant irregularities and imperfections were found in the 2013-2014 batch of books.
The main problem, he explained, was that glue used to bind the books was not up to standard, causing them to fall apart.
The government had issued specific regulations for the printing companies to adhere to, he said, and those companies that did not comply had been slapped with sizable fines.
Printers were now being asked to stitch or staple the bindings rather than use glue in order to prevent them from coming apart so easily.
The Ministry is also in the process of making educational CDs available, said Suleiman, the majority of which will be for English-language teaching in the early grades.
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