Libyan prosecutors have ordered the detention of the country’s interim education minister, Ali al-Abed, over allegations of negligence and administrative irregularities tied to a major school textbook scandal that has disrupted the academic year for millions of students.
The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Saturday night that Abed and the head of the ministry’s school programmes department were placed in preventive detention pending investigations. Authorities allege the two officials caused “harm to the public interest and violated the right to education” by failing to deliver textbooks on time.
The probe revealed serious irregularities in the awarding of contracts for printing school books for the current academic year. According to investigators, the contracts were marred by administrative and financial lapses, contributing to the delayed distribution of textbooks across the country.
As a result, the 2025–2026 school year began more than a month late, with an estimated 2.6 million students forced to attend schools without proper learning materials. Parents were left with no choice but to pay for photocopies of textbooks, a heavy burden in a nation already struggling with economic instability.
In Libya, the government provides textbooks free of charge through secondary school, funded by a special allocation within the education ministry’s budget. The failure to deliver these essential materials has sparked public outrage, with citizens demanding accountability and transparency within the ministry.
Abed’s detention comes months after his predecessor, Moussa al-Megarief, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison over a similar case involving a textbook shortage. The recurrence of such scandals underscores the ongoing challenges facing Libya’s education sector, which continues to grapple with corruption, mismanagement, and the lingering effects of political instability.
As investigations continue, public attention remains sharply focused on whether Libya’s authorities will take lasting steps to reform the system and restore confidence in the education ministry’s leadership.
