Education is the cornerstone of a nation’s progress, and it is often touted as a powerful tool for achieving equality and social mobility. However, in today’s Lebanon, the situation is quite different. The country is facing a widening inequality in educational opportunities, threatening the future of its youth and its development prospects.
“I want to learn and succeed in life, but how can I when the resources and opportunities are not available to me? Education should not be a luxury for the privileged few, but a right for all,” Rajaa Sharafeddine says, an eighteen-year-old student at Al Amir Shakib Arslan Secondary School in Verdun, Beirut. Around this time of the year, she would normally be thinking about her exams, graduation, and future choices, she tells Executive in late March, laconically adding that her education is now being disrupted for the fourth year in a row – first owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, and more recently because of economic school closures and teacher strikes.
Sharafeddine’s comment highlights the reality of many students in Lebanon, attempting to gain an education amid a deteriorating system. In January, an estimated one million children were out of school, according to international organization Save the Children. In 2021, following pandemic-related measures and the declining economy, more than 737,000 children of Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian descent were out of school, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
One of the main barriers to education access has been the proliferation of widespread strikes among teachers at both public and private schools, resulting in temporary school closures up and down the country, as staff demand better wages and working conditions. As these strikes are ongoing, while wealthy families can afford to provide their children with alternative educational resources like private tutoring, for lower-class families the disruption will only serve to exacerbate the gap between the rich and the poor; perpetuating a cycle of poverty and limiting opportunities for social mobility.
Education in Lebanon has long been a point of pride for the country due to its history, diverse culture, and Westernized schooling system. However, in recent years, there has been a growing concern about the widening gap between the education opportunities available to students in private and public schools. This inequality has been exacerbated by several factors such as economic disparity, social exclusion, and political instability. According to the World Bank, in the 2020-2021 academic year, approximately 55,000 students moved from private to public schools.
Educator and sociologist Sanaa Hassan explains to Executive the dynamics of the public and private education systems in Lebanon. “Private schools in Lebanon are typically run by for-profit entities and charge tuition fees that can be prohibitively expensive for many families. On the other hand, public schools are generally run by the government and are meant to provide education to all children regardless of their socioeconomic background.”
Despite having the same curriculum set by the Ministry of Education, Hassan emphasizes that private schools have a distinct advantage due to their ability to invest in better resources and infrastructure. “Private schools have access to modern technology, more textbooks, and teaching materials. They also have better facilities such as libraries, laboratories, and sports facilities. Public schools, on the other hand, may lack some of these resources and facilities due to a lack of funding,” she adds.
Hassan also highlights the role of socioeconomic status in amplifying this inequality. She says that private schools are usually filled with children from wealthy families while government schools have diverse populations. “This can affect the learning experience of students, as those from wealthier families may have had access to more resources and support before entering school.” She further lists factors which impact the quality of education, such as class size. However, she also notes as a counterfactual that the dedication and expertise of the teacher is of higher significance than the number of children in a class.
Madeline Khoury, a former French teacher at Sagesse High School in Jdeideh, suggests that the issue with education in Lebanon does not simply come down to disparities between public and private schooling but rather an outmoded approach to education. “Both systems suffer from the limitations of an outdated curriculum and a lack of sufficient teacher training,” Khoury says. For her, an updated approach to teaching, with learning methods that prioritize the development of higher-order thinking skills, is overdue in the Lebanese school system.
“Teaching is a noble profession that requires continuous learning and development, but unfortunately, many teachers in Lebanon are not adequately prepared to meet the complex demands of modern classroom,” Khoury says. Without sufficient training, teachers may struggle to engage students, manage behavior, and create a safe and supportive learning environment. As a result, many students miss out on opportunities to reach their full potential, and teachers may become frustrated and burn out. Khoury recommends investment in teacher training programs in Lebanon to improve skillsets.
Teacher strikes, vocational barriers, and exclusion of refugee learners
“I’ve been at home for the past three months, not learning anything, because of the ongoing teacher’s strike. It’s frustrating to see my education being put on hold because of a conflict that I have no control over,” Sharafeddine says.
“I feel like we are being left behind while other students in private schools are moving forward. It’s not fair that we are forced to stay at home without an education while they are able to go to school and learn everything they need to succeed. We all deserve the same opportunities and resources to reach our full potential.”
Throughout this year, public schools have suffered from intermittent closures as teachers demand higher wages and stipends. The demand varies from basic education to secondary education, university education, and technical education.
Vocational or technical education is an area where financial restraints translate into pertinent difficulties for technical schools. Dany Maroun is an accounting and finance teacher and guidance and employment officer at Edde Technical School in Jounieh, an educational institution that offers vocational and technical training programs. “[Technical schools] rely heavily on specialized equipment and facilities for their training programs. We would sometimes pay from our pocket to make our students have enough equipment and [so they] can enjoy learning, but now we can’t afford to do this anymore,” he tells Executive.
With the depreciation of the Lebanese pound, Maroun’s monthly salary has fallen to the equivalent of less than $200, down from $3,000 before the crisis. He has been struggling to keep up with fuel costs to power the generator and heaters during the winter months.
The teachers’ hardships are having a ripple effect on the quality of education. “How can we ask the teacher to give his time and effort and raise generations when he is unable to support himself?” Maroun says. “And all the time [the teacher] thinks about what he will do besides education so that he can live the whole month without going hungry. Today, I’m like the majority that thinks of leaving, and whenever I get a chance abroad, I will not think twice [about going]. Between humiliation and leaving, the choice is clear to everyone.”
Since the start of Syria’s civil war, over 1.5 million Syrians have relocated to Lebanon, but only around 950,000 people are registered with UNHCR. Refugee education in Lebanon is impeded by various factors at a smaller scale, mostly related to financial constraints, in addition to transportation expenses, economic instability, the absence of legal documents and differences in curriculum. According to a 2021 report from Human Rights Watch, an estimated 29 percent of Syrian children are out of school due to arbitrary rejection by Lebanese schools.
The teacher strikes have also impacted refugee education. As morning classes for Lebanese students ceased, so too did the afternoon classes attended by refugee children. Education Ministry officials recently commented that the closure of the afternoon classes was due to “equality” concerns, as it was unacceptable for Lebanese children to miss school while others did not.
More challenges and the will to change
“Imagine being a student and not being able to take an exam because we don’t have the supplies to administer it. And it’s not just exams. We don’t have proper electricity in some of the classrooms, so we’re teaching in the dark. How can we expect students to learn in these conditions?” asks Basel Saleh, a professor of philosophy at the Lebanese University.
Lebanese University (LU) is the only public university in Lebanon, and it plays a critical role in providing higher education opportunities for low-income families. But such opportunities are at threat as the university faces challenges from political interference, financial difficulties, lack of resources, and declining academic standards. It has spurred a decrease in enrollment, protests, strikes, and a wider decrease in the quality of education.
Saleh tells Executive that the university is undergoing several problems resulting from the economic crisis. According to him, these problems extend from “unequipped buildings to the scarcity of papers and other necessary supplies, in addition to the demands of full-time contracted university professors, all of which is threatening the academic year and the fate of its students.” He notes, however, that the troubles of Lebanon’s public university have preexisted the economic crisis, lamenting that the government has been disregarding “the demands of academics for a long time, even prior to 2019.”
According to Saleh, 80 percent of the professors at LU are not registered as full-time employees, which means they are excluded from welfare benefits like health insurance, while their monthly paychecks are currently paid biyearly. He explains how this further lowers the commitments that society can expect from those entrusted with teaching at LU. “If you don’t have professors who are employed full-time, you cannot compel them to participate in administrative meetings. Additionally, if they don’t receive social and financial stability, they may have to take on multiple jobs which could lead to increased stress and potentially compromise the quality of education,” Saleh says, even as he notes his own choice of staying in Lebanon and embracing the challenges while his family has emigrated in pursuit of better opportunities.
Despite the many facets of the Lebanese education dilemma, decoding its needs and pointing to possible solutions is no deep enigma to committed educators who have decided that the vital public good of education is in urgent need of resuscitation. As an educational sociologist and president of the Lebanese Association for Educational Studies, Suzanne Abdul-Reda recommends several key actions to help close the gap in education opportunities and create a more equitable and just society in Lebanon, beginning with governmental investments in the sector. “This investment should focus on improving the quality of education and increasing access to educational resources, such as textbooks, technology, and libraries,” she says. “The government should also provide financial assistance to families who cannot afford the cost of education, including tuition fees, transportation, and school supplies. This will ensure that all children have access to a quality education regardless of their family’s financial situation.”
In her view, schools in Lebanon must adopt policies and programs that promote equity in education. “This includes providing extra support to students who are at risk of falling behind, such as those who come from low-income families, those who speak a language other than Arabic at home, or those who have special educational needs. Schools should also promote diversity and inclusivity by celebrating the cultural differences of their students and providing a safe and welcoming environment for all,” she says.
The desire to create a world where education is a right for all has motivated Abdul-Reda and a group of experts to act towards this goal. In April 2022 they founded an educational consultancy called SCOPE that provides services to empower and equip communities, schools, and NGOs working in both formal and informal educational settings. “We act through evolutionist paradigm of governance based on wholeness, trust, free information, worker autonomy, self-management, critical peer relationships, shared values, valorization of diversity and continuous learning,” Abdul-Reda says.
