The most vulnerable face real danger

Lebanon faces an "educational disaster" with children permanently dropping out of school

Lebanon was among the first countries to close schools in March 2020. Archives

Save the Children, Save the Children, warned yesterday of an "educational disaster" in Lebanon, where children from the most vulnerable groups face a real risk of permanently interrupting education in the wake of an economic collapse exacerbated by measures to address the Coronavirus.

In a report on the crisis of the educational sector in Lebanon, the organization said, "The socio-economic crisis in Lebanon is turning into an educational disaster, while the most vulnerable children face a real risk of never returning to school."

Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus began a year ago, the organization has estimated the number of children out of school at more than 1.2 million.

She said that during the past year, Lebanese children received their education within 11 weeks, while Syrian refugee children received a much lower rate, due to the closure of schools for several reasons, including the popular protest movement against the political class and then the closure measures with the outbreak of Corona.

The prolonged collapse has deepened the level of poverty, as more than half of the Lebanese are below the poverty line, while the rate rises to 70% and 90% among Palestinian and Syrian refugees, respectively.

Poverty is, according to the report, "a severe obstacle to children's access to education, while many families cannot afford the costs of learning requirements or are forced to rely on children to provide income."

Lebanon was among the first countries to impose the closure of schools in March 2020 with the outbreak of the virus, and the remote education system was adopted, whose effectiveness varies between private and public schools.

The economic crisis makes distance education more and more out of the reach of children, as their families are unable to incur internet costs due to the deterioration of the local currency exchange rate and tens of thousands of residents losing their jobs or part of their salaries.

The report quoted a child named Adam (11 years) as saying that he and his two sisters share a smart phone to receive their lessons, and that he must go to the neighbors' house to use the Internet.

"The education of thousands of children in Lebanon hangs by a thread," said the organization's director in Lebanon, Jennifer Morhad.

And she warned that "a large number of them may never return to the classroom, either because they have already missed many lessons or because their families cannot afford to send them to school."

In addition to losing their ability to learn, the organization warned that "children who are out of school are more at risk of falling victim to child labor, child marriage and other forms of abuse and exploitation."

She urged the concerned authorities to act quickly "to ensure that an entire generation does not lose the opportunity to obtain education" and to open schools whenever possible.

Lebanon began this week to vaccinate teachers, in a step the Ministry of Education hopes will constitute a step "towards the safe return of integrated education."

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