Nearly 20 Libyan curriculum schools in the United Kingdom face closure after the Libyan Embassy decided to suspend scholarships and funding for students of the Libyan diaspora. The Libyan Embassy had begun paying the fees of low-income Libyan children at the schools after the normalization of UK-Libyan relations in 2011.

Nearly 20 Libyan curriculum schools in the United Kingdom face closure after the Libyan Embassy decided to suspend scholarships and funding for students of the Libyan diaspora. The Libyan Embassy had begun paying the fees of low-income Libyan children at the schools after the normalization of UK-Libyan relations in 2011.

“After the February Revolution, we were optimistic and, hence, cooperated with the embassy,” Professor Ali Osaebaei, head of the administration committee of the Libyan Civil School in North London, told Correspondents. “However, this cooperation did not last long as it ended in a year due to some violations committed by the Cultural Attaché,” added Osaebaei.

The Libyan Civil School in North London – like other Libyan schools scattered in about 20 British cities – teaches the Libyan curriculum and students attend for one or two days a week, spending most of their time at a standard British school. The North London Libyan school, founded in 1994, initially included 144 students and was funded by the students’ families who paid tuition fees full until 2011, when the embassy stepped in to offer scholarships.

Diaspora hub

The importance of the school, according to Professor Osaebaei, lies in being “a means to communicate civilization and culture and to appropriately guide the children to acquire the intellectual, emotional and social habits of their country to adapt to their community,” in addition to providing a space for Libyans to meet – a platform for the Libyan diaspora.

A meeting between officials from the Libyan Embassy and the 20 or so schools on September 20 confirmed the end of state funding, forcing many schools to move to cheaper premises or impose fees on students. Some were forced to close until further notice.

The Libyan School in Liverpool moved to a run down building to stay open. “We found this solution better than closing the school,” says the school’s principal, Mohammed Qashti. He said his students hardly have books because of a “lack of coordination” with the embassy.”

End of meritocracy

“Cutting off funds is a harsh decision and negatively impacts the schools’ future,” says Elhadi Kaddor, parent of a scholarship student at a Libyan Civil School. Kaddor added that the funding shortage means classes have had to move to smaller premises, students have dropped out and teachers are in short supply. “There are no specialized teachers, particularly for the early stages of basic education which require special skills to deal with children who are not fluent in the Arabic language,” Kaddor told Correspondents.

The head of the Libyan school in London confirms that lower-income children will struggle in the new tuition fee-based system. “Expenses including rent and teachers’ salaries force the parents to pay amounts ranging from 250 ($305) to 350 ($429) pounds per child per school year, which is an amount that low-income families with more than two children cannot afford,” says Osaebaei, the school’s founder.

Last-minute plea

The Cultural Attaché addressed a letter to the head of Scholarships Administration at the Libyan Ministry of Education on 26 September in which he asked the ministry to transfer the financial allocations of the scholarship students in London and urged the head of Scholarships Administration to address the situation before it aggravates. The Cultural Attaché also mentioned in the letter his meeting with the schools principals who were asked to find appropriate financial alternatives for this year, stressing that these financial alternatives remain temporary solutions with no long term prospects unless embassy funding is resumed.

“Officials do not care”

But the head of the Administrative Committee of the Libyan Civil School, Mohammed Qashti, holds both the Libyan Embassy and the Cultural Attaché responsible for the schools’ problems. Qashti says his and other schools submitted several proposals to resolve the problems but the embassy officials “do not care” to consider them. He directlyy blames “the improvised and ill-considered interventions of the Cultural Attaché,” who, Qashti claims, appointed incompetent people to positions directly related to education.

Qashti says the schools’ proposals suggested ways to modernize the schools, including the formation of a specialized committee to summarize the curriculum and switching to e-books.