BALADI NEWS
School buses don’t take a break in the mountain villages during the afternoon in Lebanon.
In a second shift, drivers take Syrian students to public schools to attend the “afternoon schooling” which has been renewed for several years now.
It has provided job opportunities for 12,000 Lebanese in the education sector as well as other related sectors and is funded by the United Nations and donor countries.
The Syrian refugee schools in Lebanon follow their own programs and organizational methods under the supervision of the country’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
They provide afternoon schooling for Syrian refugee children within the country’s official school buildings after Lebanese students fill these schools in the morning.
Lebanon currently hosts some 987,000 refugees who have fled the ongoing Syrian conflict for seven years now. Among them are some 490,000 children whose ages range between(three and 18), according to UNHCR figures.
These initiatives have provided job opportunities for more than 12,000 Lebanese in the educational sector, benefiting from the programs specialized for educating Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
Among these Lebanese are 7,500 “employed” holding degrees and educational competencies, but not related to the Ministry of Education.
While others are teachers working in the country’s official education sector, according to Education Minister Salah Taqi al-Din.
“There are more than 218,000 Syrian students studying in Lebanese schools,” Taqi al-Din told Asharq Al-Awsat.
For this reason, he added, the Ministry of Education employs this number of teachers every year to provide education for all these students.
Each teacher receives 18,000 Lebanese pounds (about $12) per hour of education for refugees.
He stressed that the process of educating Syrian children in Lebanon is subject to an integrated program.
The teachers are not the only party benefiting from these schools as the Ministry is doing a great job in providing all the students’ needs, Taqi al-Din noted, adding that it also provides them with psychological and health counselors throughout every school year.
Regarding the funding of these schools, Taqi al-Din said there are many donor countries that have given the Ministry of Education special grants to Syrian refugees, notably the United States, European countries, and Russia.
Lana Najem, one of the teachers in these schools, told Asharq Al-Awsat that she has been given a job opportunity she had been looking for since before the Syrian crisis.
She explained that as a business administration graduate who failed to find a job in her profession, she decided to take advantage of the opportunity to teach refugees in these schools.
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat.