The survival of some 300 French-language schools is threatened in Lebanon due to the most serious economic crisis in its history, causing concern among teachers and threatening the future of the Francophonie in this country. 

The gravity of the situation is such that France has decided to pay a dozen million euros for schools urgently in the coming months. 

At the "Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes" school in the town of Zahlé, Colette Moughabghab welcomes parents who were devastated by the news of the closure of the establishment, victim among many others of the economic and monetary crisis which has plunged almost half of the population into poverty. 

"I did everything to get help […] but in vain", laments the nun who manages the establishment. 

Like its small school in eastern Lebanon, founded in 1885 in the Bekaa plain, the survival of the 330 other Catholic establishments in the country, more than 80% of which are French-speaking, has never been so threatened. 

Some fear serious fallout on an educational pillar, but also on the Francophonie, in a Lebanon where the language of Molière is already giving way to English. 

For Father Boutros Azar, secretary general of Catholic establishments, the situation is "catastrophic". "Between 50 and 75 schools in our network are at risk of being closed" in September, he said. The expanded network of French-speaking schools has half a million students 

Established in Lebanon from the 19th century by several Catholic missions, notably from France, these schools have nevertheless survived many tests throughout history, notably the civil war from 1975 to 1990. 

For the Francophonie, the stakes are high. Lebanon is "the first country in the world in terms of the number of pupils schooled in the French system, far ahead of the second, Morocco", underlines AFP the French ambassador in Beirut, Bruno Foucher. 

The establishments approved, labeled or certified by France educate some 120,000 students. In total, the expanded network of French-speaking schools has half a million students, or 50% of the national population. Nearly 50,000 students in the network, more than a quarter, are Muslim.  

The French Secular Mission, which brings together five establishments across Lebanon, is also experiencing its worst crisis since its establishment in the country more than a century ago. More than 1,500 departures are planned and 180 teachers have already been dismissed. 

"I will not be able to send my second child to school next year" 

In Colette Moughabghab's office in Zahlé, Samer and his wife follow up on questions, the mine disconsolates, while their son Julien, 7 years old, wanders in his old school. 

For parents who can afford it, students will be transferred to another school at the start of the school year. But this 47-year-old father was forced to make a difficult choice. 

"I will not be able to send my second child to school next year," he explains. 

"I earn 1.2 million pounds per month", or just over 150 dollars, against 800 dollars before a tumble the national currency, which plunged a whole part of the population into poverty in the space of a few month. 

These schools are all the more important as public schools, overwhelmed by the massive influx of Syrian refugees since 2011, are under-equipped in the face of the expected changeover next year of 120,000 new students in public education, indicates a source at the Ministry of Education. 

To try to avoid the worst, French aid provides for an emergency plan of "several million" dedicated to around fifty approved schools - zero-rate loans and school grants to Lebanese families -, a specific fund for Christian schools and a special plan for all French-speaking schools. 

With AFP

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