The Lebanese economy is changing. Our education system must follow suit. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) is committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 Education, thereby committing to providing access to quality education for all children. Our work contributes to 12 other SDGs for 2030, including Goal 8…
The view from Lebanon’s education ministry
Are Arab countries on track for UN education goals?
A region of renowned civilizations and contribution to humanity, the Arab region has become one of paradoxes in recent times: Young, highly educated, dynamic nations, on the one hand, and multiple protracted armed conflicts, high levels of youth unemployment, volatile and vulnerable states of existence, and extreme inequalities and disparities, on the other. While…
Education and the 21st century
The 21st century will cause a rupture in the way we think, feel, behave, create, produce, and live. Fire took eons to start changing humanity—tools, a little less. The first agricultural revolution changed people’s lives over the course of 8,000 years. The first and second industrial revolutions took place within less than 150 years. The…
Le Gray’s general manager’s four years in Beirut
Lebanese born and raised, George Ojeil was the hotel manager at the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan, when he was offered the position of general manager (GM) of Le Gray Beirut, which he describes as a “very sexy product which any hotelier would love to run.” What further facilitated the decision to accept Le Gray’s…
The deterioration of human capital in Lebanon
Economic and social prosperity in a country is measured by assessing the standard of living of its people. Those born in a country with high levels of poverty and corruption have a higher risk of living in a state of deprivation and suboptimal prosperity. Those born to wealthier nations with a more equitable distribution of…
US sanctions Hezbollah lawmakers
Last month, the United States designated two elected Lebanese legislators and members of Hezbollah as terrorists. This was an escalation of the US measures targeting the party, alleging that Hezbollah smuggles drugs and launders the proceeds to finance its militia and alleged terrorism activities. Little more than two years since Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri…
Lebanese edtech startups carve a place alongside traditional teaching
Lebanese startups focusing on education technology (edtech) have tapped into the idea that as education changes, they have a role to play in preparing the next generation for the 21st century workplace. Educators seeking to prepare children for the jobs of the future, those that rely more on coding, robotics, AI, and programming—and depend less…
Providers search for lucrative coding bootcamp models
If anything about the future can be claimed as certain, it is this: The jobs of the future will be different from those of today, and jobs across various sectors will more heavily rely on skills such as coding and programming. This shift has already begun, and Lebanese entrepreneurs, such as the founders of SE…
Lebanon’s education system is failing students with special needs
Students with physical and cognitive disabilities in Lebanon are being put at a disadvantage by a system that, from the get-go, creates barriers—both physical and financial—toward an inclusive education. While there are signs that this could change in the future, current progress is slow, and on a structural level, the educational system in Lebanon continues…
Behind the Lebanese University strikes
My father returned to Lebanon in 1994, 10 years after the civil war forcibly exiled him to France. He thought that his PhD from Sorbonne University, coupled with extensive academic publications, would be sufficient for him to find a decent teaching job at the Lebanese University (LU). He soon realized the error in his assumption…
Academia, the public, and policy-making in Lebanon
There has never been a better time to critically assess how and where we get our news and information than these times when social media has become the main source of news for many, and “fake news” not only informs policy-making, but has become a tool for some politicians. Healthy democracies require informed citizens capable…
LAU study a model for solving the problem of data scarcity
The impacts of universities on the surrounding environment go far beyond their gates. Their contribution to the local economy—understood as both direct and indirect effects on employment and overall economic development—is visible to the naked eye. Classic examples include Oxford, England, or Cambridge, Massachusetts, which are unthinkable without Oxford and Harvard universities. In Lebanon, the…
Private schools in Lebanon struggle to provide quality education at a reasonable cost
This year marked the 200th anniversary of the death of al-Muallem or the master Butrus al-Bustani, a writer and scholar, who founded one of the first schools in Lebanon, Al-Madrassa al-Wataniya (the national school) in 1880. The school was based on national principles and was open to all without discrimination—a change from the religiously run…
The Lebanese educational landscape
Despite large variances in concepts of what constitutes a good education and the curious inconsistency which individuals tend over time to exhibit on the matter, the value of education as a public good is constant throughout history and across societies as diverse as classical Greece, imperial China, and contemporary America. In our global era of…
Lebanon’s budget: One hurdle is passed, many more remain to be overcome
Three months is not a long time, depending on one’s perspective. If you are a rock that has had Mediterranean waves washing up against you for the last 11,000 years, three months are almost nothing. A blink. On the other hand, if you are a silk moth eager to feast on mulberry leaves, three months…