Schools in Lebanon suffer amid economic crisis, politicised decisions

BEIRUT -- The academic year in crisis-hit Lebanon started with severe challenges for public and private schools that some fear could lead to the collapse of the country's education system, once prized throughout the region.

As the value of the national currency has plummeted, one of the most significant problems is private school tuition fees, which have reportedly tripled this year.

Though Minister of Education and Higher Education Abbas al-Halabi has stated that private schools must receive their tuition in Lebanese pounds, private schools still require part of their tuition to be paid in dollars.

The economic crisis has imposed the "dollarisation of tuition" on private schools, said Father Youssef Nasr, co-ordinator of Lebanon's Federation of Private Educational Institutions and secretary-general of Catholic Schools.

The current situation has forced many parents to transfer their children to less expensive private schools or to public schools -- among them Ibrahim Youssef, who works in building maintenance.

Youssef said he has four school-age children, and must pay $300 in tuition for each child, on top of the tuition he must pay in Lebanese pounds.

"Where do I get all this money from when I can barely earn a salary to feed my family?" he said.

He said he eventually registered the children in a public school in the Metn district of Mount Lebanon that is close to the family's home and also allowed them to save on transportation costs.

"Corrupt politicians and Hizbullah stole our money and destroyed the country and its economy, causing our currency to collapse to the point that we have become poor," he said.

Mother of two Manal Mansour said the country's crises "are depriving us of educating our children, and are affecting the educational system, whose praises we used to sing".

"I had to sell a plot of land at a low price to raise money for my sons' education, because they are in high school and will head to university soon," she said.

Public education in danger

The economic crisis has affected public schools as well.

Public school teachers have not been paid in full since February, and the ongoing financial difficulties have forced the Ministry of Education to reduce the number of school days to three days a week in the public school system.

Currently, some 67,000 teachers, 25,000 of whom are contracted, are teaching in Lebanon's public schools.

Multiple crises in recent years and the collapse of the pound saw the value of teachers' salaries drop from $2,000 to $80, based on the exchange rate, said Moulouk Mahrez of the Secondary Education Teachers' Association.

Mahrez said teachers have not been paid in full since February as they have not received transportation allowances and social grants, which are equivalent to half a month's salary.

After the teachers' demand for a raise, the state paid them the assistance fees, but did not raise their salaries, she said.

"It is not possible to ask a hungry and exhausted teacher to innovate and produce," she told Al-Mashareq.

"Our crisis has been ongoing for three years, during which the state gave us half a month's salary in addition to the basic salary, but this was not done on a regular basis because the state is bankrupt," she said.

The 2022 state budget has approved teacher salaries to be doubled, she said. "But this must be accompanied by a serious adjustment to the transportation allowance to protect teachers from the fluctuations in the price of gasoline and cover their rising living costs."

Mahrez said the teachers' current situation "is a warning about the danger the country's public education is in".

Public schools are in dire straits as a result of three years of accumulated crises and strikes and as teachers are unable to meet living expenses, An-Nahar education desk editor Ibrahim Haidar said.

Public education is in danger because plans for the education sector are mostly politicised, he said.

The incentives offered to teachers may help get them through this school year, he added, but they do not solve problems in the long term, as any collapse of the currency will cause teachers to strike again.

Sector 'on verge of collapse'

Head of the Union of Parents' Committees of Private Schools Lama Tawil said the education sector is "on the verge of collapse, and that will lead to a societal collapse".

She said the reason for the education sector's current state is that it is mostly managed by policies implemented by various political parties for their own gain.

"The majority of private schools require tuition installments ranging between $300 and $4,000, in clear violation of the law, while the installment in Lebanese pounds has tripled," she said.

The matter has not even been discussed with the parent committees, who are legal partners in the financial management of the schools, Tawil noted.

Tawil said the picture of this school year is "blurry", expressing concern that "the current school year will be lost" as a result of the current political and economic crises, "outrageously high tuition fees, and our inability to pay them".