According to the estimates of the Lebanese Ministry of Education, as well as statistics conducted by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 10% of Syrian students in Lebanon left school in the previous year. At last, students returned to school, but those who dropped out of school among them might be far more than that.
With the spread of the pandemic, the crises of Syrian students compounded. They found themselves bearing more expenses, like the expense of the equipment required for remote learning, such as laptops and smart phones, internet quality, in addition to the cost of electricity in Lebanon, which reached record highs, due to the increase in fuel prices as a result of its outage.Walid, 12, is one of the Syrian children who suffered a lot during the period of remote learning. He is a member of a family from Homs that sought refuge in Beirut. He shares the same laptop with his sisters, Nada, 9, and Manal, 11. Despite the children’s efforts to organize their time, they suffered a lot during the pandemic. Walid himself sometimes helps his father in his work as a street vendor. Frequent power outage caused internet crisis and confusion in organizing time, which caused him to miss many lessons. Today, after his “incomplete” return to school, Walid argues that the percentage of facemask adherence is not that high. When asked about social distancing, Walid asserts, “he only heard about that in TV”. He goes on to explain, “separating students is impossible in the afternoon due to their high number”.
Humanitarian organizations indicate that the number of Syrian Children who are unable to reach school amounts to more than 1 million. According to “Save the Children” Charity, the number of these is 1.2 million. In addition, a study carried out by the same organization, indicates that Lebanese children have received an estimated maximum of 11 weeks of education, with an even lower number of weeks in schools for Syrian children. Difficulties started before the pandemic, continued through it, and it seems that the said rate may exacerbate further. In this respect, sources and studies available at the Lebanese Ministry of Education, the entity concerned with following up the issue, say that the number of Syrian students in Lebanon is circa 150000. The cost of their education by tutors ranges from 80 to 95 million Dollars a year. While many donors contributed with the biggest share of this cost, (circa 83 million Dollars), the lion’s share comes from the European Union. The Lebanese Government, given the dire economic situation, is struggling to bridge the gap, though it is not a huge one compared to the value offered by the donors.
Variation in Teaching Quality
The situation after and before returning to school is the same. Children in Lebanon do not go to school regularly at the same time, nor are they able to receive the same education. As in all countries of the world, the quality of education varied after the spread of Covid-19, whether in school or with remote learning. There is private and public education. In Lebanon, there is the economic crisis that coincided with the spread of the pandemic, which increased the variation in the quality of teaching. However, there is much more to it than that: the systematic discrimination against refugee children, who are not able to take part in the morning classes, without bearing extra costs due to the increase of fees of private schools. Many outsiders think that the cost of education is just the fees. As for refugees, the issue seems a bit more complicated. The agreement between the Lebanese official authorities on the one hand, and the European Union on the other, stipulates that the cost of education per child be capped at 600 USD. After calculating the amount of European spending on educating Syrian refugees, if the child goes to school in the afternoon, and 363 USD in the regular school time in Lebanon i.e. in the morning. However, most of Syrian students go to school in the afternoon. Sources from the Ministry of Education and official authorities initially justified adopting these decisions by attributing them to the low logistical capacity in Lebanon, and the impossibility of classes to accommodate refugee children, along with their Lebanese peers, due to their high number. However, insiders believe that there are other reasons, among which is the discrepancy in educational curricula, which made it difficult to integrate the refugees with local students. Many educators throw suspicion on this decision deeming it discriminatory against Syrian children.Refugees and the vaccine
In general, it is not possible to evaluate the conditions of remote education with the absence of substantial scientific studies. However, what is certain is that refugees have suffered a lot, as they form a weak link in the chain for not having sufficient financial capabilities to hold out, which means that receiving a reasonable quality education was a more difficult choice during the pandemic and even after the decline of its spread recently. Many other issues await refugee children back at school from the pandemic. The first of which is the danger of the pandemic itself. We were not able to get sufficient information from the Lebanese Ministry of Health about the number of vaccinated children, whether via the Ministry of Health itself or humanitarian organizations. However, the Ministry sources say that some percentage of old people got Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, with no clear information available as yet about the official number of vaccinated people. Abdul Rahman al-Bizri, Head of Lebanon's vaccine committee, indicated in an earlier statement that the number of refugees registered for the vaccine, according to formal campaigns launched for them, did not exceed 5%. He adds that, based on experience, the number of Palestinian refugees vaccinated in Lebanon - according to the same source- was more than that; that is because “the Palestinian refugee has a clear administrative and political point of reference in Lebanon, as opposed to the Syrian refugee, who comes to Lebanon and returns to Syria, and does not regularly reside in Lebanon like the Palestinian refugee”. In parallel, health care workers (who refused to disclose their names) assert that that the percentage of vaccinated Lebanese is very much higher than that of the refugees. With regard to children under 16 and above 12, Covid-19 Lebanon's Vaccine Scientific Committee granted permission to vaccinate children who fall under this group only a month ago, and requested the renewal of adopting “Sinofarm” Chinese vaccine for 6 months so that children are able to register on the platform and get the vaccine. As for the refugees, they are, in turn, still waiting for the opportunity to get the vaccine.Furthermore, students in Lebanon undergo formal tests in the ninth grade (French Brevet according to Lebanese curricula) and the third secondary grade, i.e. the last educational year (French Baccalaureate according to curricula). Students in these grades leave their school, and the Ministry of Education is the exclusive official side to conduct these exams, while special committees administer the marking. However, the process has become a subject of a heated debate, regarding its viability, and accuracy of execution. For a long time, these obligatory tests, without which it is not possible to pursue studies, impose on all refugee students, especially the Syrian refugees, a prerequisite for accepting their candidacy to take part in the exams, namely, obtaining official residency in Lebanon. Most refugees, however, suffer a lot in this regard, for being refugees in particular, and for the fact that Lebanon does not legally deem itself a country for refugees, and insists on classifying them as displaced. Students pay the price of these contentions. The only survivors are those included in the Ministry of Higher Education’s decision of abolishing the “residency requirement”, which justifies its decision on humanitarian grounds plus the impossibility of organizing residencies for refugees in schools in isolation of the legal settlement of their families. Jinan, 14, is still anxious and her mother asserts to us that if the Cabinet does not issue a decision to abolish the condition of the residency proof, her daughter will not, as such, be able to sit for the formal exams, missing thereby a year or more, in case the Lebanese authorities insisted on applying this rule.
Post Pandemic (is not) like pre pandemic
The pandemic has abated; nevertheless, Muhammed (9), the refugee in Lebanon for 4 years, is still out of school. While registration in the afternoon is possible, acquiring educational necessities is still difficult for his family who is struggling to get all school needs, such as books and stationary, in addition to the high transport cost for its seven children. After the price of fuel plate reached 213K Lebanese Pounds (equivalent to 12$ as per the parallel exchange rate) it became impossible for their father to secure transport costs. Drivers demand a sum between 1 million – 1.5 million Lebanese Pounds (equivalent to around 80$ as per the parallel exchange rate today) per child. This means that the transport cost for all family members ranges between 6-9 million Lebanese Pounds annually, which is “a totally unachievable figure” for the father whose assistance from the UN is barely enough to pay for the rent and to buy food and drink: “Despite its disadvantages, Covid-19 days were easier”, he jokes, without holding back his strong resentment from the difficult economic conditions, in which poverty and suffering are shared by both the poor refugees and their Lebanese peers.January 2022