Libyan education minister detained over school textbook shortage
Libya’s education minister has been detained by authorities for negligence amid a school textbook shortage scandal, according to The New Arab via AFP on November 2nd.
In a statement, the prosecutor general’s office announced the preventative detention of Ali al-Abed alongside the head of the ministry’s school programmes department “pending an investigation into harm to the public interest and violation of the right to education.
The prosecutors revealed that Abed was under investigation for “irregularities in the administrative and financial procedures” of contracts that he granted for the printing of school textbooks to be used by Libyan students during the current school year.
A “lapse in the duty to provide the textbooks to two million students on time” was also discovered, according to the statement.
The 2025-2026 school year in Libya was delayed by over a month due to the shortage. To make matters worse, the parents of almost 2.6 million students who did not have the required textbooks were forced to pay out-of-pocket for photocopies.
Through a special allocation in its budget, the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity’s (GNU) education ministry typically provides students at Libyan public schools with educational textbooks for free up until the end of secondary school.
The Libya Review stated on November 2nd that schools in the cities of Benghazi, Tripoli, Sebha and Sirte all reported that they had received less than half of the textbooks required to operate at a standard level. One education official estimated that only 45 percent of allocated textbooks had been delivered so far in 2025.
Abed was serving as Libya’s education minister in an interim capacity after replacing Moussa al-Megarief, who himself was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison due to his involvement in a similar case relating to a shortage of textbooks in 2021.
Megarief was initially investigated for corruption by “violating the principle of equity”, and “favouritism in contract management… over the printing of the textbooks.” He was subsequently fined 1,000 dinars (roughly $180) and had his civil rights revoked for the year following his initial detention in 2021.
This recurring mismanagement was likely a driving factor in the GNU’s launch of widespread education sector reforms designed to bolster international partnerships with major academic institutions.
The project, named the National Strategy for Higher Education and Scientific Research for 2025-2035, also aims to leverage grants from regional organisations and enhance research activities.
According to a report published by REACH in May 2024, schooling conditions are so poor in Libya due to the scarcity of resources. Roughly 160,000 children and 5,600 teachers require some form of support related to the quality or access of education.
The New Arab via AFP, Maghrebi.org, REACH, Libya Review
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