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Lebanon’s Growing Educational Woes
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solving, rather it teaches children the best methods of cramming as much they can during the smallest time frame. It is also not uncommon for these tutors to give students various “hacks” to help them know what part of the curriculum they should focus on most, and which ones they could glance over once or maybe twice. Take for instance Arabic, in the Egyptian school curriculum Arabic is split into a number of different sections, essays (taabeer) ,novels (kesas), poems (nosos), grammar (nahwo). In 12th grade Egyptian high schools, students study Al Ayam (The Days) by Taha Hussien as their novel section, and taking this as an example many private tutors will tell their students which chapters to focus on and which chapters they can ignore. To be fair, most of these tutors don’t make up these claims as they usually back their “insider knowledge” on which chapters have appeared most on recent test papers and which ones have been set aside. Furthermore, many students will also ask their friends on pointers their tutors have given them and as a result many students will most likely go into the exam having crammed 70 to 80 per cent of the novel rather than 100 per cent of the book.
While the discrepancies between public schools and private schools have highlighted the class differences in Egyptian society, private tutoring has had a similar effect. Most of these private tutors are highly reliant on word of mouth, and once one tutor becomes renowned for helping a
multitude of students pass with flying colours, they will soon find themselves receiving many phone calls from parents asking them to take their kids under their wing. The more popular tutors (aka the ones who are known for yielding the best results) are usually the ones who charge more. Since parents are forced to hire a tutor for each subject, then they are forced to make hefty decisions on which tutors they can afford. While public education has meant that lower income households did not need to worry about tuition, the growing necessity for cram schools have made such households adjust their budgets to accommodate private tutoring
WHAT ABOUT PRIVATE SCHOOLS
It was once believed that children who go to private schools get the attention that their public school cohorts lack, and therefore did not
A parent reading the holy Quran during waiting the students exit outside the examination committee during the first day of high school exams in Giza Governorate, Egypt, on June 2020 ,21. (Getty)
need to attend private classes. However, this is far from the truth. Take my own personal experience for instance, I was in an international school and I attended its American division section. As the name implies, we took the same curriculum from American high schools and therefore, our grades were dependent on two metrics, the Grade Point Average (GPA) and our SAT exams. Our GPA came from our work in school and was mostly straightforward. However, there was a problem when it came to SAT examinations since it wasn’t included in our own school curriculum (through no fault from our schools since that’s how American high schools operate). As such, many English and math teachers would become private SAT tutors, and private SAT lessons were not cheap. Back in 2012-2013, a private SAT session could cost up 550 Egyptian pounds, naturally given national inflation rates, this price tag has undoubtedly increased. Students who are enrolled in IGCSE schools (the international equivalent of the British GCSE) also attend similar classes in which tutors helped them pass their A-level exams.
A NEW HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
In 2017, Egyptian Education minister Tarek Shawky announced that the ministry would get rid of the Thanaweya Amma standardised test. In its place, a new grade percentage system would be favoured. As such, under this new system a student’s grades over their entire threeyear high school career would be taken into consideration, as all final grades will be calculated to form a grade percentage. This is a major contrast to the current system that places a student’s future on a single examination period that takes place during the last days of their high school journey. Furthermore, the minister announced that the rigid split between the sciences and arts pathways would be abandoned, and instead students throughout the these three years would be free to choose the subjects they want to undertake. The ministry said that this new system will be put in place starting from the next academic year of 2020-21. While this might help reduce student test anxiety, it is still unclear if it will improve the quality of education in public school environments. Furthermore, as long as high school is still a critical period in which a student can improve their social standing, then reliance on private tutoring might not subside in the near future.
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Lebanon’s Growing Educational Woes Lebanese Schools Struggle to Cope with Coronavirus and Financial Deprevation
Lebanese workers spray disinfectant in classrooms and halls of a school in the coastal town of Rmeileh, 35 Kms south of the capital Beirut, on March 2020 ,2, in an effort to prevent a novel coronavirus outbreak in the country. - Lebanese authorities ordered on February 28, the closure of all schools, universities, and other educational institutions. (Getty)
by Sarene Zein
The situation in Lebanon has been deteriorating for many years now, and with the current looming financial and economic circumstances in addition to the recent pandemic, there is no doubt that the education sector, among many others, has received a harsh hit. It is no secret that the education sector has been crumbling down for several years now. Many private schools have shut their doors permanently for lack of funds, and thousands of teachers lost their jobs and still await long overdue paychecks from previous employers who promised to give them their salaries “once the economic crisis improves”. The real and fundamental problem is that parents resort to admitting their children to private schools instead of public ones for the sake of getting a quality education in exchange for the ridiculously high tuition fees which those schools demand. Parents have lost faith in most public schools due to over-crowded classes, negligence, and the lack of the Ministry of Education’s interest in any attempts of improving the learning conditions in public schools by introducing more resources such as online access, smart boards, and so on. It is fundamentally evident that the Lebanese education system is outdated and is in deseperate need for reform. It still depends on old methods of teaching, and most schools have no internet access in classes and no interactive ways of teaching as well as learning.
THE STRUGGLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Majalla spoke to a teacher working in one of Lebanon’s secondary public schools who addressed many crucial issues which most public schools face. She explains that despite the economic situation, the school year started very well; however, that changed after the revolution of October 17th. The school was shut for about a month, and when teaching resumed, students behaved rebelliously and irresponsibly. They refused to attend their classes claiming that teachers are not taking into consideration the country’s situation and are giving them plenty of assignments which they are not in the mood to do. Just when this rebellious spirit doused, the coronavirus pandemic started. This is when the situation worsened: The Ministry of Education resorted to online teaching, and every now and then, the ministry sent a new teaching program to be used for teaching. As a result, parents understandably protested due to the high prices of internet which they cannot afford, there’s also the nearly non-existent electricity. At a certain point, teachers exerted time and effort in preparing their online materials, only to have one or two students actually attend the online class. What is even more confusing and frustrating is the fact that the minister of education made announcements which further complicated matters instead of resolving them. For instance, he once announced that online learning is not mandatory and will not be counted, which made students totally lose interest, but also insisted teachers would send what has been taught weekly to the ministry. Thus, part-time teachers that are paid by session will certainly not get paid since students stopped attending classes. Those teachers are paid per semester, and till now they haven’t received any payments. Then came the dilemma regarding cancelling the official exams and ending the school year as the ministry seemingly couldn’t decide how students would be promoted to their next grade. First it
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was suggested that students will be promoted to the next academic year without any conditions. Later students were supposed to be promoted based on their grades during the first semester of the school year. It was then suggested that students will be promoted based on their first semester grades in addition to 20% of their online attendance. This connundrum poses a crucial question: how is it possible to include online attendance in the students’ grades if the MInister himself said that their attendance is not mandatory? Logic dictates that all students should be promoted to the next class and official exams would be cancelled due to this pandemic, and this is exactly what happened. All students were promoted, and public schools ended their online teaching on June 13th and ended the school year on June 25th while private schools were left to decide when to end theirs. But some wonder: `Is it fair to promote a student who’s barely above average just as if they were an achieving student? Was the Ministry of Education’s response efficient and adequate to start with? Could anything have been done differently?
THE PRESSURE IN ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
A few days ago, the ministry of education stated that all students are required to register for the next academic school year 2020-2021 between June 16th and 30th. The issue is that with the financial struggles which parents are facing as they cannot afford to pay any fees. Parents are calling schools and asking them to reserve a seat for their kids for next year while frankly admitting that they can’t afford to pay any fees right now. This is why a huge amount of students are moving from private schools to public ones. Can public schools handle all the pressure? If social distancing will be implemented during the next academic year, this means that each class will hold a maximum amount of 15
students. With the current high demand on public schools, this means that there might be a need to open morning and evening classes to accommodate all students, which by default requires doubling the amount of staff putting more financial pressure on the Lebanese government.
ONLINE TEACHING PROVED TO BE A BIG LIE
Amidst all this chaos, one thing was sadly made clear: online teaching is inefficient. Due to the financial situation, not all families were able to afford internet service fees which are among the most expensive in the world. Moreover, not every household can afford to buy laptops or computers. One must also take into consideration the long power cuts which Lebanon is notoriously famous for. Most teachers were certainly not trained to conduct online teaching, and they did not attain any help or guidance from the Ministry of Education. They were left to fight their own battles. Online teaching proved to be unreliable as well. There was an incident where a teacher corrected 20 duplicate exams. Other students resorted to cheating during an assignment or exam where a family member was present nearby giving out correct answers to help.
WERE PRIVATE SCHOOLS DOING ANY BETTER
Minister of Education Tareq Majzoub arrives for the inaugural cabinet meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda east of capital Beirut on January ,22 2020. (Getty)
thought it was sufficient enough to upload videos related to the lessons for students to watch. This was a cause of concern for many parents who argued that this was not what they had expected for the amount of money they were paying. Though other parents were cooperative, they eventually lost interest as well. Although teachers worked hard to make the most out of this frustrating situation with their available resources, they received little to no help from their school or the Ministry of Education. Moreover, some teachers received only half of their salary(not on time of course) while others haven’t been paid since the beginning of this ongoing crisis. When teachers contact the administration for news about their wages, the only reply they get is that schools are waiting for parents to pay the tuition fees of the current school year and the registration fees for the next academic year. This means that teachers’ financial problems won’t be resolved any time soon. Majalla also spoke to a director of a Lebanese private school who shed light on the current situation. She said the crisis started when coronavirus cases began increasing in Lebanon and the minister took the decision to close schools. The school resorted to teaching from home by sending students educational videos since the school does not use books in its curriculum but rather other resources and tool kits. At the beginning, almost all students’ parents were very cooperative and followed up with the school’s instructors through Whatsapp video calls, but after the escalation of the economic crisis in Lebanon, parents got discouraged and demotivated. As a result, only half of the parents stayed on-board. The school director added that perhaps online learning is effective somehow in higher levels of schooling, but it is not as effective for young children due to the lack of interaction and communication. However, it is not quite productive to consider online learning as a permanent future teaching method. What escalated matters concerning online learning is that teachers were not fully trained although they were provided with enough resources and printables. They were able to deliver interactive E-learning lessons, but not able to deliver a whole curriculum online. To make matters worse, the school, just like most of the schools in Lebanon, received no aid from the Ministry of Education. Thus, the school was burdened with this unfortunate situation as well as all the expenses that came along. Since November 2019, with ongoing protests and the declining economic situation, the school has struggled financially. Then, the pandemic worsened matters: schools were forced to close, and some parents stopped paying their fees while others asked for a refund. As a result, the school did not have enough funds to pay its employees. The school’s administration tried to resolve the issue by offering parents a 30% discount, nevertheless, the financial situation is still shaky while waiting for struggling parents to pay their instalments especially with the daily fluctuation of the local currency. On the bright side, the school is ready for the academic year 2020-2021 regardless of the extreme difficulties it may face. Physical distancing rather than a social one will be applied among students, but it is feared the incredibly high prices in Lebanon will affect the school’s usual standards in providing necessary resources. In conclusion, who is the real victim? Is the victim a teacher who is struggling to give 100% of her time and effort to give online classes with limited resources, no previous training, and no income at all? Or is the victim the student who somehow lost a whole school year while trying to adapt to this new inefficient teaching method? Or are parents the victims of having to pay tuition fees for a service, which was not fully delivered, as well as electronic devices and internet that they can barely afford? What about school directors? Will they be able to pay their teachers for a job they claim wasn’t done effectively? There is no doubt that the next academic year holds a lot of uncertainty and unclarity. That is why it is plausible to ask when will the Ministry of Education step up and reveal a reasonable and well-thought plan that may show any kind of progress?
