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Education in Lebanon

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According to a 2013 World Economic Forum (WEF) report, Lebanon was ranked 17th in overall quality of education, and 5th in science and mathematics. The survey was carried out as part of the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report. According to Muhammad Faour, a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, "this assessment is a significant departure from the results of student achievement tests in every international test Lebanon and Qatar have participated in."

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and compiled from an amalgamation of international assessments, including the OECD's Pisa tests, the TIMSS tests run by US-based academics as well as the TERCE tests in Latin America, Lebanon ranked 13th globally in mathematics and sciences. In the international student achievement tests in math and sciences (TIMSS) in 2007 and 2011 for grade 8, Lebanese students scored well below the international average of 500. In math, Lebanon scored 449 both during 2007 and 2011.

Lebanon's adult literacy rate was 97.9% in 2014 according to the UN Human Development Index, ranking it 65th globally.

The percentage of the population as a whole with at least some secondary education (aged 25 and above) is 75%. For the percentage of the female population with at least some secondary education, the figure drops to 39%.

History

The Lebanese Council of 1736 urged the Maronite clergy to create schools in every village in order to educate both men and women. It further ordered that Arabic be the language of teaching and that it should be taught next to Syriac, the Maronite liturgical language.

During the Ottoman period, networks of public schools coexisted alongside foreign missionary schools established by European and American religious organizations.

In 1920, during the French Mandate, the largest administrative institution for Lebanon (and Syria) was established, the Service de l'instruction Publique, also known under the abbreviation SIP. SIP was responsible for organizing education policies across Lebanon and subsidized existing educational institutions; private, public and religious alike. Public schools were directed under a unified curriculum controlled by the SIP, whereas private schools had more autonomy. A clause in the 1922 draft of the 1926 constitution, drafted during the French mandate, emphasised in article 10 the freedom of education service providers, notably on the right of religious communities.

The French mandate did not invest sufficient funds in Lebanon's public education system. This was already evident in 1938, when the number of private schools and students enrolled in them exceeded the number of public schools and students attending them. Permitting religious and non-religious communities to establish their own schools and determine their own curriculum allowed the SIP to cut costs. In exchange for this independence, they only required the schools to include a set number of French language instruction hours per week. Although many schools were founded by specific religious communities or missionary organizations, students and teachers frequently moved between institutions, and schools often educated pupils from different confessional backgrounds. Historians have noted that these educational networks sometimes created “communities of knowledge,” in which ideas circulated across sectarian boundaries through shared curricula and teaching staff. Though the public education sector expanded significantly since independence in 1943, the private sector is still dominant with respect to number of schools and students. Driven by different visions of citizenship, the Lebanese program of education has undergone three curricular reforms (1946, 1968-1971, 1997). After gaining independence, the Lebanese government wrote in 1946 the first national curriculum, modifying the 1926 Ministère de l'Instruction Publique of the French Mandate. The goal was to foster a Lebanese national identity by demanding Arabic as main language of study and nurturing patriotism. The second curricular reform in 1968-1971 was triggered by the rise of Pan-Arabism, which sought to set a Pan-Arabic identity over Lebanese nationalism. Educational institutions in Lebanon have historically played an important role in shaping political and cultural identities, including debates over Lebanese nationalism, Arab nationalism, and citizenship.

During the Lebanese Civil War, the various factions published their own history education books, trying to control historical narratives. Students and teachers often joined militias for protection, bringing arms to school and showcasing their allegiance through debates and graffiti. When the new Government of Lebanon signed the three-part blueprint for reconstruction into law in 1990, the third section of this peace agreement outlined five points for education reform.

The third major reform was a result of this and in 1994, the CERD carried out the Plan for Educational reform, which resulted in a revised national curriculum. The history curriculum caused controversy and subsequently did not pass reform legislature. Subsequent events to write a great narrative failed too, creating a gridlock and thus resulting in an unchanged 1968-71 history education curriculum.

Impact of the 2026 Israel–Lebanon war

The war between Israel and Lebanon has displaced hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. Education experts have expressed concern that the conflict may have created a lost generation of Lebanese students, widened social inequalities, and undermined national unity. Schools across southern Lebanon have been destroyed, and hundreds of educational institutions have been converted into temporary shelters for displaced people. These disruptions have added to the existing challenges facing Lebanon's education system, which had already been weakened by a severe economic crisis. In response, some schools in Lebanon have adopted online learning and other programs to reach students. However, education experts in the country have noted that many students remain without access to education. Moreover, efforts to compensate for lost instructional time have focused mainly on subjects such as science and mathematics, while topics like citizenship education have been neglected. According to Carlos Naffah, an academic researcher quoted by Al Jazeera, this approach could have dangerous consequences in a country like Lebanon, which is home to multiple religious sects.

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