By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 27 July 2017:
The Presidency Council’s education minister Osman Abdel Jalil has taken the unusual step of banning a student from school for two years. The decision, one of the toughest ever taken by any education minister in memory, came after the high school student, who has been named as Muhannad Mohamed, threatened the school examination monitoring committee with a gun unless they allowed him to pass his exams.
The incident, at a private school in Sorman, happened a few days ago. The student, brandished a 9mm pistol at the committee in the apparent belief that it would pass him, enabling him to get into university.
The committee, however, reported the incident to the education ministry which has ruled that he will not be allowed to study at any public or private school in Libya for the next two years. The decision even extends to Libyan schools abroad.
Any results attributed to him in the past academic year have also been annulled, it was announced.
The incident highlights the extent to which people now think nothing of using force or threats of force to obtain what they want.
In another loosely related incident in Tripoli yesterday, a top education ministry official named as Ahmida Ramadan Ghariani was shot at as he left a mosque in the city. Apparently the gunmen first tired to kidnap him but failed. He was not injured in the attack.
The ministry is connecting it to what it said was his “firm opposition” to exam cheats and the actions of corrupt officials sitting on exam committees who have been helping the cheats.
