The Lebanese Education Situation

Did we hit rock bottom? Can it become harder? Are we reaching solutions soon? Will we get over it?

It's Eliane from Lebanon, and that's all you need to know about me for now.

The Lebanese education status: What is true?

The country's literacy rate is 95.07% (Macrotrends, 2018). According to a 2021 World Economic Forum report, Lebanon was ranked 7th in overall quality of education and 3rd in science and mathematics. Lebanese students are always shining abroad as doctors, engineers, artists, and so on. We are known for our hard work and dedication. Yes, it's a lovely truth.

The Lebanese education status: What else is true?

First, we have a high literacy rate because we don't have records for 2022 yet. We have a high ranking in terms of education, math, and science because we don't have 2022 records yet. We have a high literacy rate and education ranking because of individuals—teachers, university doctors, and several schools and university initiatives—and not at all because of what the Lebanese governments pushed forward for decades.

Second, our curriculum dates back to 1997. No, this isn't a typo. The last time we created a curriculum was in 1997, 25 years ago!

Third, our public schools and universities are not even operating, and when they do, they barely give their students 10% of what they should learn. Also, with the country's economic crisis, our private schools and universities have become increasingly expensive.

Fourth, the use of digital schooling during the pandemic made the gap even bigger between those who could afford digital devices and those who couldn't. Additionally, the use of digital schooling, even for those who can afford digital devices, didn't guarantee them proper schooling because we have weak internet infrastructure and don't have electricity all the time. Yes, yes, you read right. We are in 2023. We are a small country of 10452 square kilometers, and we spent almost half of the country's debt trying to supply Lebanese with 24 hours of electricity but "couldn't".

Fifth, teachers and doctors in the public and private sectors are not getting paid, and even when they do, their salaries are barely enough to survive the economic crisis. And, in a few years from now, we won't find teachers to teach our kids even if we had all the money to do it because teachers left the country anyway.

And last, Lebanese students can't afford to buy the books and pencils they need, and some families can't afford to lose the income their kids could get if they went to work instead of going to school. People are selling everything they have to send their children to study abroad, hoping that some foreign country will receive their kids, treat them well, and value their dreams, talents, and ambitions. Moreover, a few years from now, we won't be able to apply to study abroad because our education level won't allow us to meet the study abroad requirement.

I can keep writing about this until tomorrow and make a book about our situation, but I will stop here and leave the rest to your imagination. One tip before you start to imagine: The full truth is dark.

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What is the solution?

We need to admit that this is our situation and that it's bad. We need the government to invest more and more in the education sector and consider it a priority, and while I am writing this, since I know that we are broke at the national level, I will ask for it but can't rely on it. We need NGOs and non-state organizations to step in and contribute, but this won't be enough. We need collaboration between the public and private sectors to lift both together, avoiding the widening of the gap between the two, and this might be a solution.

And if I can follow my instinct and write what I have in mind, I would say: destroy that system and build a new one because corruption has hit its roots and it's a metastasis.

Who is making the choice, and who is paying for it?

Until now, the decision has been in the hands of the Lebanese leaders, who decided, by ignorance or choice, to shut down the country, and that includes its education sector.

The country as a whole, as well as countries that used to benefit from Lebanese brains, are paying. Even those who made these choices will lose. Ten years from now, they will need doctors, and they won't find them because they didn't help in their creation. The potential doctors left the country, studied abroad, and stayed there; we lost them, or they couldn't continue their studies anyway, and we lost them. I don't know if the leaders are not aware of that, if they are denying it, or if they are planning it intentionally.

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Education as a public good and a human right

No, this was never the case for the Lebanese because we always needed to struggle to study, and now more than ever, we are struggling and suffering. The time to transform our education is long overdue. We need to act now.

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Now, who am I? I am Eliane from Lebanon, a girl who had to deal with all the above, decided to turn her trauma into advocacy, and I still have hope.

Disclaimer: I wrote this reflection with care, love, worry, and anger . The goal is not to discredit the efforts made, by any stakeholder, to bring us out of this crisis.