BEIRUT — Students in Lebanon will return to the
classroom starting next month, the education minister said Monday, amid
fears an accelerating economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic would prevent
schools from reopening.
اضافة اعلان
Rights groups have decried an "education
catastrophe", with more than a million children in Lebanon out of school
since the country's COVID-19 outbreak began in February last year.
Other students are at risk of never returning, the groups
have warned, due to a financial downturn that has seen poverty rates soar to
reach 78 percent of the population.
Classrooms will gradually reopen starting September 27,
outgoing education minister Tarek Majzoub told a press conference on Monday.
The decision covers both private and public schools as well
as technical learning centers. All are to reopen by October 4 at the latest, he
added.
Lebanon had moved to distanced learning in March last year
due to the pandemic, with intermittent returns to the classroom for some
students.
But power cuts, internet outages, and the economic crisis
have made online instruction a luxury, as families struggle to afford food, let
alone laptops and mobile phone devices.
Schools have threatened to shut because of extortionate
operating costs amid rampant inflation.
In an attempt to ease their burden, Majzoub said public
schools would open to in-person attendance four days a week, with students
taking classes online for the fifth day.
Private schools are free to determine their own operating
schedule, he added.
The ministry "is coordinating with relevant authorities
and donor countries to settle outstanding financial and economic issues,"
Majzoub said, decrying "a series of crises" plaguing the education sector.
Lebanon's economic crisis, branded by the World Bank as
likely one of the planet's worst in modern times, has seen the local currency
lose 90 percent of its value on the black market.
The crisis has led to shortages of almost everything, from
fuel to electricity and even bread, with power cuts lasting up to 22 hours a
day and fuel for private generators increasingly scarce.
Majzoub said that with international assistance, the
ministry has provided donations of textbooks and stationery for public school
students, as well as solar panels for 122 learning facilities.
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