Mlf intervenes and resolves the challenges of the increase in tuition fees for the next two years.
Beirut, March 18, 2019: The Director General of the “Mission laïque française” (Mlf), Mr. Jean-Christophe Deberre, addressed the Lebanese press at a press conference held at the “Stade de Chayla”, where he announced the Mlf’s decision to cover the difference between the expenses and the revenues certified by the audit reports of the Mlf, and to provide an exceptional financial assistance to the institutions of the Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais (GLFL) and Lycée Lamartine in Tripoli, for the next two school years in order to maintain the tuition fees as those of 2017/2018; and the same principle will apply to the other establishments if they agree to sign the budgets. “The Mlf would like to reaffirm its dedication to the respect of laws and justice, while strongly hoping that the Arbitration Tribunal for Education can fulfill the mission legally assigned to them”, the Director General of Mlf pointed out. “The Mlf wants to reconfirm its commitment to transparency, in front of the entire parent community, as stipulated by the law, and to advise the community that we understand the two concerns they express, namely: the best education for their children, and the control of the increase in tuition fees, during these difficult times in Lebanon”. The Mlf had decided to fully implement Law 46/2017, in conformity with all its articles. Yet this decision faced two challenges: the problems with the families regarding the increases in tuition that were necessary for the payment of the adjusted wages and, on the other hand, the teachers’ strikes in last April & June against the incapacity of their employer to provide them with the increased wages as stated by law.
Faced with the budget disputes, the refusal to sign by the five parent committees of the Mlf institutions and their appearance before the judge of urgent matters, the Mlf had to provide all the necessary means to convince the law of the rightfulness of its cause.
Being a French non-profit institution, recognized as public utility in France, the Mlf wished to inform the parent committees in full transparency that an audit of all the accounts of the establishments has been completed, and the results have already been communicated to them: conformity of expenditures and revenues, in compliance with the law 515/96, concluding that the expenditures exceeded the revenues, and therefore it was not the Mlf who owed the parents, but in fact the opposite.
Mr. Jean-Christophe Deberre thanked the two parent committees of the lycée Lamartine in Tripoli and the GLFL for understanding the meaning of these measures, for having signed the budgets of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, while abandoning all disputes towards their children’s schools, and for reinforcing their commitment to establishing a relationship of trust and confidence with the management of these establishments.
For the lycée Nahr Ibrahim, a non-increase in tuitions was proposed. This also applies to Nabatieh High School where the French State had agreed, at the request of parents and authorities, to assume full responsibility for the principal’s remuneration. “In these two institutions, the Mlf was ready to make the same exact efforts, but it hopes it will be heard,” said Mr. Deberre.
