The current meltdown raises school absenteeism to more than 50%

The economic crisis and the difficulty of distance learning threaten the fate of students in Lebanon

• Amal, Hind and Sarah cry as they tell their painful story with distance education.

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• Sarah displays the broken screen of a mobile phone that is not suitable for remote learning.

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• “Umm Muhammad” tries to help him learn whenever possible.

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• Muhammad displays his pamphlet for the Arabic language.

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In a random refugee camp in eastern Lebanon, Muhammad and his three sisters fear that they will miss a new school year for the third year in a row, with their parents' inability to provide the requirements for distance learning imposed by the outbreak of the "Covid-19" epidemic around the world.

Like many countries, after the outbreak of the epidemic in the winter of 2020, Lebanon imposed a comprehensive closure of schools, forcing children, including Syrian and Palestinian refugees, to stay in their homes, and content themselves with distance learning via the Internet, but these measures did not go smoothly in a country witnessing an accelerating economic collapse, The poor and most vulnerable classes, especially the basic elements to ensure distance learning, are not available, the simplest of which are computers and the Internet.

"Look at my phone, how is it possible for my son to use it to study?" Abdel Nasser, Muhammad's father, told AFP.

The screen is broken and I have no internet at all.

His wife interrupts him with a hooked candle, "We don't have the ability to buy a phone for every child, we first have to feed them."

The time has come

In 2012, Nasser fled Syria with the expansion of the armed conflict in it, and sought refuge in the town of Terbol in the Bekaa region, and in the following year he did not send his son Muhammad (11 years) to school, with schools starting to receive refugee children in limited numbers at first.

In the year 2019, Nasser decided that it was time for Muhammad to join his three sisters Amal, Hind and Sara (between 12 and 14 years old), who had benefited from four academic years, until the comprehensive closure began in March 2020 with the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

Muhammad only benefited from a few months of studying, and his father sighed, "He doesn't even know the multiplication schedule."

As for his sister Amal, she cries compulsively when she remembers her school. She says to Agence France-Presse: "I was happy and studying Arabic and English, science and geography."

"I cry because my parents are unable to meet the requirements for studying online," she added.

Work school allowance

Shamaa is doing what she can to compensate her son, with the help of a poster with the letters of the Arabic alphabet written on it, and she got it from the school principal who wanted to help Muhammad in particular.

She repeats the letters in her son's ears and gives him examples of them, "Aleph, Rabbit," but says that what she is doing today is the most that she can do.

And her biggest fear is that the authorities decide to close schools for an additional year, which means that Muhammad will remain illiterate.

In early April, Save the Children (Save the Children) warned of an "educational disaster" in Lebanon that will affect especially the most vulnerable as a result of the economic collapse exacerbated by measures to address the Coronavirus.

The number of children outside their schools has been estimated at more than 1.2 million children.

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.

"Some Syrian children left their education to work and help their families," said Lisa Abu Khaled of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

She pointed to estimates by the Lebanese Ministry of Education that show that "at least 10% of the Syrian refugees dropped out of school this year, or about 25,000 students," considering at the same time that the numbers are much higher.

According to the UNHCR, the current crisis has raised school absenteeism to more than 50% among Syrian children.

I hated studying from afar

The Lebanese students themselves were not immune from the repercussions of the crisis.

Pamela (11 years old) lost a large part of her school year due to the difficulty of distance learning.

In an apartment in the densely populated "Burj Hammoud," a suburb east of Beirut, she points to a table covered in dust and says with a lump, "I was studying on this office."

Today, he has nothing left but a computer keyboard, which was toppled by the explosion at the Port of Beirut on the 4th of August.

The explosion, which killed more than 200 people, exacerbated the suffering of the family, who was already struggling to secure their livelihood.

Pamela's parents today can't afford to buy a new computer for her.

The child, who seems very aware of what is happening around her, says that the new computer "today costs millions of pounds" in a country where the local currency has lost about 90% of its value against the dollar.

Instead of a computer, Pamela began following her classes via cell phone, but it was not easy as she expected, as the blackout of even "18 hours a day" further complicated her ability to continue her education.

"I hated studying online," she says. "I can no longer continue."

Elle listens to his daughter, but the only thing that crosses his mind is to leave the country, and even admits that he wanted Pamela to leave school for even months.

And the former taxi driver says: "I do not care about education, nor is this country basically all of it, what we lived in it is enough for us."

Unlike her father, Pamela has never given up her passion for learning, and dreams of a day when she will be back at school.

"I want to learn so that later on, I can find a good job and help my father," she says.

• In early April, Save the Children (Save the Children) warned of an “educational disaster” in Lebanon, which will affect especially the most vulnerable as a result of the economic collapse exacerbated by measures to address the Coronavirus.

The number of children outside their schools has been estimated at more than 1.2 million children.

• At least 10% of Syrian refugees dropped out of school this year;

That is, about 25 thousand students.

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