BEIRUT: The Lebanese Ministry of Education has warned schools in Lebanon against adopting copies of the book “National Education and Civic Education” with the Israeli flag on the cover.
The book, which was reprinted by an unidentified publishing house for sale in markets, featured a photo of the United Nations building on the cover, with the Israeli flag among those of other countries.
The ministry controlled the copying and reprinting of textbooks published by the Educational Center for Research and Development, including “National Education and Civic Education.”
However, printing and distribution of official schools is reserved for the Educational Center for Research and Development, in accordance with the constitution and the Taif Agreement.
The press service of Education Minister Abbas Al-Halabi said he had decided to take legal measures and prosecute “all those who committed fraudulent acts of copying, printing and distorting the textbook “unified education and who violated the exclusive right of the Educational Center for Research and Development to reproduce the national textbook series”.
The minister called on security authorities to take measures to counter this phenomenon, which was mainly caused by economic conditions, the decline in the value of the Lebanese pound against the dollar, and the fact that no company or house publishing company has participated in the designated calls for tenders for the printing of the national book.
Hiam Ishaq, director of the Educational Center for Research and Development, told Arab News that legal proceedings had already been initiated some time ago against publishing houses that illegally produced textbooks, and that warnings and measures had been implemented against them.
However, the owner of this publishing house did it again, this time and made a serious mistake related to the existence of an Israeli flag on the cover of the book.
The preparation of the textbook is subject to educational specifications stipulated in the documents of the Educational Center for Research and Development.
Dr. Ishaq clarified that the National Education manual extends from primary to secondary.
“The National Education Center for Research and Development invites tenders from publishing houses that want to print the textbook, and the Ministry of Education buys the textbook from them,” says Ishaq.
“But with the collapse of the Lebanese pound and the fact that the state only deals in Lebanese pounds, no publishing house came forward this year to print the manual. »
“UNICEF had been printing the textbooks for two years, but informed us that they did not have a budget for it this year. »
“The organization used to ask public school students who received free textbooks to recycle them by giving them to students who moved to the same class, with the exception of practical work books which could not be reused. »
“Faced with this chaos, publishing houses have decided to print the textbooks and sell them, which is against the law and violates intellectual property and the legal right to production. »
According to Ishaq, the National Education Center for Research and Development would be moving towards the e-book – a project which would have moved to the implementation stage.
“The problem is that not all public school students have a device to use this app, and we risk having to resort to a PDF version of the lessons required of students,” she said. concluded.
This text is the translation of an article published on Arabnews.com
2023-09-23 21:41:25
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