On July 16, 2014 Education Minsiter Elias Bou Saab informed the MTV of his decision that secondary schools and the official public and private schools are not to issue any regulations, decisions or instructions that which could taint religious freedom and education freedom as well as their means of expression.
Aforementioned circular came in response to the MTV’s report on the SABIS School’s Adma Branch which prevented the students from bearing religious sings encompassing crosses and the veil.
Legally speaking, the circular is supposed to be final and binding, however, it seems that SABIS’s Shoueifat – Koura Branch has bypassed the decision, Ghassan Qahwaji’s account confirmed.
Qahwaji whose children were banned from entering class because of the cross-sign as marked on their foreheads on Ash Monday, has had a rocky relation with SABIS administration and asked the Education Minister to resolve the situation.
We attempted to delve in to the dossier and contacted the SABIS administration, which denied Qahwaji’s account depicting it as a defamation attempt. We then contacted the Education Minister who preferred to await the scholastic year to start so as to observe whether the decree had been implemented or not.