Students across Lebanon are refusing to return to class unless their demands are met in a protest that has gone on for nearly three weeks and have led anti-government protest on Wednesday, November 06.
In the capital Beirut, dozens gathered in front of the education ministry, brandishing Lebanese flags and chanting slogans demanding the removal of a political class seen as incompetent and corrupt.
“What will I do with a diploma if I don’t have a country,” one student told Lebanese television.
In the largest student-led protest, crowds streamed into a central square in the southern city of Sidon, demanding better public education and more job opportunities for graduates, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.
In a school in the resort town of Jounieh, just north of the capital, students mobilised against school governors accusing them of banning participation in the protests.
Other student-led protests took place in the southern cities of Tyre and Nabatieh, the eastern city of Zahleh and the northern city of Byblos, according to NNA and other Lebanese media reports.
But demonstrators, who have kept up their protests since Oct 17, were not blocking key roads on Wednesday morning.
Banks were open and classes resumed at most schools after a two-week gap. (Source: CNA/AFP)