Lebanon has been living under the Israeli enemy’s threat of all-out war for an entire year. Yet the Ministry of Education did not, as is now clear, develop any plan to ensure that education continued if this war broke out. The ministry did not engage the other parties involved in education, such as private schools, parents’ committees, teachers’ associations, and the Teachers’ Syndicate, in any discussion about the measures that would help schools persevere and education continue in the public and private sector for all Lebanese learners without exception. Nor did it present the supposed emergency plan to parties concerned with addressing wartime crises for a discussion focused not on sectarian and political point-scoring but on saving society, preserving its resources and capacities, and, most importantly, salvaging the academic year.

Hence, the war and displacement crisis struck the Ministry of Education while it was completely unprepared, and the only solution seemed to be to postpone the beginning of the academic year in public education and temporarily suspend education in the private sector.

Ad Hocness and a Lack of Preemption

Failing to plan and preempt events, and then forcing all Lebanese into a corner, leads only to the abyss and the claim that the situation could not have been any better. This is the same approach that this authority takes to most, if not all, of the country’s crises. Facing the pressure of the mass displacement, the Ministry of Education opened the doors of many primary and secondary schools to house the displaced and, on September 23, issued a decision to suspend education throughout Lebanon for two days. It then extended the closure to the end of the week (September 29) in the private sector and postponed further enrollment activity in the public sector until October 14.

The fumbling, lack of planning, and lack of vision are evident from the fact that the September 23 decision initially only suspended lessons in the targeted regions. Evidently, Minister of Education Abbas Halabi disregarded that schools would become shelters, that some teachers and professors would be displaced, and that the scope of the aggression was not yet clear. Following widespread criticism, he then amended his decision to encompass all Lebanese territory.

These ad hoc decisions were accompanied by the usual outburst of sectarian rhetoric, which culminated in Halabi holding a press conference on October 6 to present the ministry’s plan for continuing the 2024-2025 academic year amidst the war on Lebanon. However, this plan – in addition to its belatedness and failure to preempt events – is based on data collection but does not specify how this will occur. The ministry wants to collect information about 400,000 students and 40,000 teachers who have been displaced without having provided or discussed any appropriate tool for this task. Moreover, despite the current, justified concerns about security, the ministry sent secondary schools a link to a Google form asking for teachers’ current places of residence. Few teachers responded, and teachers’ associations refused to use the tool, which could be hacked to expose teachers’ data.

The plan aims to survey the schools and educational institutions in the vicinity of the displacement centers, whereas any effective plan should have involved the ministry helping to determine which schools in each area or neighborhood would house the displaced and which ones would continue education for all Lebanese people – both displaced and non-displaced – in their vicinities. Education is a right that all Lebanese people should have equal opportunity to access during both peacetime and wartime. There are 2,780 public and private schools in Lebanon, including 1,228 public primary and secondary schools and 157 technical institutes. Displaced people are occupying 647 public primary, secondary, and occupational schools at the time of writing,[1] and approximately 430 primary and secondary schools are located in areas under bombardment.[2] Hence, at this point, approximately 150 public primary and secondary schools can be used for in-person education. Although the pressure of the displacement may unfortunately increase, many questions about the sites used to house displaced people remain legitimate and logical. Could these sites have been distributed in a better manner that allows education to continue? Does it make sense for monasteries, churches, and mosques to remain closed to these people (as in the case of Martyrs’ Square Mosque) such that they must remain in the street or education must cease throughout the entire public sector? What prayers can be conducted while people are living in the street and the children are going without education?

Were all halls, institutions, and public spaces exhausted, or were many sidelined, and if so, why? Was it possible to adapt some of these spaces and prepare prefabricated houses to be erected in them when the clashes escalated such that one school in each area or neighborhood could continue teaching? If very few private schools have helped bear the burden of the displacement, then why did the Ministry of Education not prepare a plan in which they, in coordination with the ministry, assume the burden of educating all Lebanese people in their vicinities?

This government has consistently sought to protect influential people, sectarian leaders, people close to them, and thugs at the expense of the people, the poor, depositors, and public services. Hence, our suspicions of mismanagement of the displacement issue are legitimate and logical.

The poor planning and coordination and failure to preempt is so extreme that the Ministry of Education announced, in the plan it presented two weeks after the aggression escalated, that it would ask the Ministry of Telecommunications for information about the capacity of the internet infrastructure to accommodate remote learning. What does the emergency plan prepared by the Council of Ministers contain if a specific point that could have been studied in advance, such as the internet infrastructure’s capacity to accommodate online education, was not investigated and the Ministry of Education has no answer to it?

Resuming Private Sector Education While Postponing the Public Sector’s School Year

The discussion about resuming education following the escalation of the aggression has transformed into a heated sectarian debate. This discussion should revolve around specific questions. These include: How many learners are displaced? Where are they distributed? What means are available to educate them and salvage the situation? How can the remaining organs of Lebanon’s state and society provide whatever they can to educate all displaced and non-displaced learners? And does the emergency plan contain mechanisms for commencing remote learning immediately (if only for two hours per day via the phones that almost all Lebanese people possess)? Instead of providing answers to all these and other essential points and cooperation to implement them, the discussion about resuming the school year has transformed into vacuous and unhelpful point-scoring.

Education, along with the psychosocial support it can provide, is a key need of children, especially amidst war and the harsh conditions of displacement. Leaving children to float aimlessly, to spend their time in front of screens in shelters or homes, and to be subjected to the harsh and usually brutal images of war is psychologically and socially harmful to them and their families. Moreover, their loss of another school year, on top of the previous losses during the past five academic years, does nothing to help the country persevere in the face of the aggression.

The war conditions have also divided learners between those capable of resuming education in person or remotely and those who do not have this opportunity. In both Nabatieh and Baalbek-Hermel governorates and in Dahieh (Beirut’s southern suburb), which is subject to barbaric daily bombardment, education cannot be resumed, especially in person. On the other hand, in Tripoli, Akkar, Mount Lebanon (except for Beirut’s southern suburbs), Beirut, and large parts of Beqaa Governorate (the middle and the west) and South Governorate (Sidon, Jezzine, and so on), the situation is different. There, the schools not occupied by displaced people, which are mostly private, could resume in-person education, and the schools that have displaced students and teachers, that are close to areas under bombardment or that are themselves occasionally hit by strikes, could resume education remotely.

Is the decision to educate the children whom circumstances allow to be educated, whether in person or remotely, a sectarian one? Or is it that historical divisions and the way they are handled give every major or minor issue a sectarian character? If all these children belonged to the same sect as the displaced children, would resuming their education be considered a sectarian decision?

Some people who have championed the demand to resume education may be sectarian, may not have a sense of patriotism, and may be seeking material gain. However, we cannot generalize these judgments to all of them, and the decision to salvage what we can and resume education by any means possible for any group is part of the country’s perseverance and resistance. For example, education in the homes and neighborhoods was one of the key activities of the First Intifada in Palestine. The real lapses lie in the failure of the Ministry of Education to preempt the bloody events that had been anticipated for an entire year, to develop appropriate plans, and to harness the country’s various capacities and institutions to ensure perseverance and the continuity of essential services, such as public schooling.

The primary lapse is the failure of all educational institutions to cooperate to save the academic year for Lebanese learners, both displaced and non-displaced. The key is to strive for continued education for all rather than to suspend it for everyone. The reasons for this last lapse are many, including the country’s structure and divisions, the failure of the Ministry of Education, and the fact that this ministry has not presented mechanisms and plans that compel all parties to cooperate. No one side is to blame for these divisions. Rather, all the parties in power are partners in these divisions and fuel them at every opportunity, sadly pushing Lebanon day after day toward a multidimensional economic, educational, and social abyss.

Our society is suffering from successive crises, which have caused severe interruptions to education from 2019 to today. Hence, ensuring the continuation of education is distinctly an act of resistance, as long as we all strive for all Lebanese learners and refugees residing on Lebanese territory to be included as soon as possible. The losses against the enemy are not just military losses, and the social and educational losses could lead to deep, long-term defeats. The Ministry of Education, as well as all religious, educational, social, and banking institutions, must take the initiative to support efforts that secure the education of all Lebanese children without discrimination. 

While the displaced have been estimated to number 1.2 million, including approximately 200,000 residing in shelters and suffering from severe logistical difficulties that complicate their education opportunities, various solutions remain possible. For example, some shelters have organized a roster for washing and cooking, and they could likewise organize specific rooms and hours during the day for education without increasing the psychological pressures and burdens on the displaced. To the contrary, this would help the displaced continue part of their normal routine, which might alleviate – if only a little – their anxiety and fear of losing essential things in their lives and building blocks for their future. The following figures clarify some of the options available. In areas that so far remain relatively safe, approximately 150 public schools are not occupied by displaced people. The students in private schools in areas that so far remain relatively safe number approximately 626,000 and can currently resume education in person or remotely. This last figure is not very accurate because in some governorates, these areas overlap with those under bombardment. We must also subtract from it the learners in Dahieh in Mount Lebanon Governorate and the city of Tyre and the surrounding townships in South Governorate. However, it does provide a general picture of the situation. The learners in regions that have been subjected to forced displacement, including students of UNRWA schools, number approximately 432,000. Hence, it seems that alleviating part of the burden of the displacement from public schools would allow the displaced learners to be accommodated, especially if varied forms of education – such as morning and afternoon shifts and in-person, remote, and blended learning – are adopted.

Other solutions are also on the table. Private schools located near displacement centers could absorb the displaced learners living there or in the surrounding homes. Some private schools located in areas targeted by the aggression have also shown their readiness to organize remote education, especially as they can easily contact their teachers, learners, and their families and therefore more easily reincorporate them into the education process.

Canceling Enrollment Fees

Because public schools are assuming the burden of the displacement virtually alone and the lack of planning by the Ministry of Education, the ministry has postponed the beginning of the public school year until November 4 and required that it be based on in-person, remote, and blended education and that enrollment occur electronically. In what may be the best aspect of the plan, the ministry has also canceled enrollment fees. However, the means that will be adopted for electronic enrollment have not been announced, and the matter has even become a joke among teachers and directors: Should people send a WhatsApp message to the director with the required information, for example?

Halabi has also called upon private schools to comply with Article 5 of Law no. 515 of 1996, which requires the cost of the first fee installment not to exceed 30% of the total cost of all the installments during the previous academic year. Lama al-Tawil, the president of the Union of Parents and Guardians’ Committees in Lebanese Private Schools, said that the minister’s call came very late as the private schools have already collected the first installment and will, after the return to education, begin collecting the second installment.

Determining the Safe Areas

Halabi’s decision to allow private schools to open was marred by many legal violations and ad hocness. It stipulated that the parents’ committees’ approval must be obtained for in-person education and that a waiver be signed acknowledging that the consequences of in-person education are the responsibility of whoever chooses it. Is it the Lebanese state that is responsible for protecting the lives of Lebanese people and, therefore, determining the safe areas where Lebanese people may move about or learn in person, or is it the private schools and their parents’ committees? Moreover, the private schools and parents’ committees have rejected this responsibility and cast it onto the parents themselves. School forms asking parents to sign that they personally bear responsibility for the consequences of their children’s in-person learning (pictured below) have circulated.

The Lebanese University and Private Universities

Some branches of the Lebanese University have opened their doors to house displaced people, while other branches are located in areas targeted by the Israeli aggression. The Ministry of Education’s same ad hoc approach applies to the Lebanese University. Teaching has stopped in some of its branches and never began in other branches, and Halabi has left it up to the office of the university’s president to complete preparations and issue circulars informing students of new developments in the situation.

As for the private universities, according to Halabi they have 160,000 students, 52,000 of whom have been directly affected by the aggression. The minister is eager to allow these universities in areas not targeted by the aggression to resume education immediately, either in person or remotely depending on their capacities and assessment of the risks. It is up to their administrations to decide the type of education and bear responsibility for the consequences. Halabi says that it is “unrealistic to stop vital education like university education for all students indefinitely because [this education] is organized into semesters and deadlines and follows the study [system] abroad”. This particular point shows clear discrimination and bias toward private universities, which the minister considers a vital service that cannot be suspended, and the frightening neglect of the Lebanese University, which he sees as less important. His justifications seem unconvincing as they also apply to the Lebanese University and the final year of secondary school. Apparently, the minister is blinded by bias, the pressure that private universities may exert on him, and shared interests.

Begging is the Education Minister’s Only Plan

Halabi says that the Ministry of Education has a plan for educating displaced children from the public and private sectors but mentions none of its components. If this plan does not include a tool for surveying the places where displaced learners are located, a survey of the institutions in their vicinity, or information about the internet infrastructure’s capacity to accommodate remote education, then what exactly are its components? The minister says that more time is needed to provide the logistical capabilities to implement the plan. It also needs, in particular, funding from donors, whom the minister is certain will fund the various education needs in the “alternate centers of education”. 

Hence, the one clear point in this plan is that funding is guaranteed for fuel, internet, stationery, operating expenses, and insurance for centers whose locations and means and date of opening the minister does not yet know, and that the Center for Educational Research and Development (CRDP) in the Ministry of Education will obtain additional support to supply the Madristi [My School] platform with digital resources. Madristi is a new platform, established by UNICEF, to which the CRDP will upload the digital resources that began being developed when the aggression against Lebanon escalated. However, it is unclear why these resources will be uploaded to Madristi instead of the CRDP’s platform Mawaridy [My Resources]. With teachers struggling to log into and use Mawaridy, which was very expensive to implement, has it become another useless platform for waste and corruption in the CRDP? If it can host the new products and serve teachers and students, then is developing a new platform not a waste of resources that public schools now desperately need? And why did the CRDP and UNICEF not take the initiative to produce these resources last year, especially as the students and teachers of Southern Lebanon were suffering from poor resources during remote education throughout the last academic year?

The article is an edited translation from Arabic.

[1] According to an October 3 statement by the National Committee for Coordinating Disaster and Crisis Responses.

[2] This approximate number was obtained through a count of the primary and secondary schools subject to bombardment in the statistical bulletin issued by the Center for Educational Research and Development.