Lebanon Faces School Year Crisis Amid Widespread Damage and Displacement
Lebanon is grappling with a severe educational crisis as the new school year approaches on September 15, with approximately 80 schools still housing displaced families. Authorities are scrambling to find solutions, planning to open classrooms in some shelters while continuing to house families in others, or consolidating displaced individuals into single sites. In Beirut, the Ministry of Education is exploring the use of vacant buildings.
According to AP, officials aim to resume classes while managing shelters, but the conflict has damaged around 340 schools, with 30 completely destroyed. There is currently no budget for their reconstruction. Some schools remain inaccessible due to Israeli occupation of areas in southern Lebanon. "We have a solution for every shelter, and no student will be left without a place," stated Georgia Hashem, an advisor to the Lebanese Minister of Education.
In the southern city of Tyre, a sports hall shelters about 200 families, many from war-affected villages. Fatima, an 11-year-old displaced from Mansouri, lives in a partitioned section of the hall with her family. Her mother expressed uncertainty about returning home or if her children will be able to attend school this year, lamenting the loss of their right to education.
Lebanon's education system has been severely impacted by a series of crises since 2019, including economic collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut port explosion, and two wars. Nora Ingdahl, director of Save the Children in Lebanon, estimates students have lost at least four years of schooling, with a sixth-grader now performing at a second-grade level. During the conflict, about half of public schools served as shelters, disrupting the education of over 250,000 students.
Nasser Yassin, director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Beirut, criticized the reliance on schools as shelters, urging the use of alternative buildings to prevent a long-term educational crisis. While a fragile ceasefire in late June allowed many of the 1.2 million displaced during the recent conflict to return home, around 350,000 remain displaced, with approximately 21,000 in collective shelters. The Israeli military continues to hold areas in southern Lebanon, vowing not to withdraw until Hezbollah is disarmed, and has conducted strikes targeting the organization's operatives.
Online learning has been proposed, but families in shelters often lack stable internet access or sufficient devices for multiple children. Fatima misses her home and school, expressing a desire to return to both.
