In a world dominated by the same few stories about Coronavirus and its devastating impact on education, we have a heart-warming story from Lebanon, a country that has been the stage for political and economic crises for many of the last fifty years.
Things are particularly bad right now. Lebanon is currently experiencing a prolonged economic depression which is increasingly impacting the day to day lives of the Lebanese people. Those living below the poverty line almost doubled to 55 per cent in 2020, with those in extreme poverty tripling1. This is having a severe impact on the lives of children, including their education.
Effect on families
To support themselves, 9 per cent of families are sending children to work and 15 per cent are stopping their children’s education2. These statistics are even higher for refugee families. Lebanon hosts the highest proportion of refugees of any country in the world, including some 1.5 million displaced people from Syria. In Syrian households, 22 per cent of families must send their children to work and 35 per cent have had to stop their children’s education3.
Coronavirus has made things worse. In 2020 school closures affected over 1.2 million school-age children. Schools did work to implement distance learning for students but 25 per cent of families could not afford the tools needed for online learning4, and those that did have them are struggling for consistent access due to limited power supplies and internet availability.
Delivering STEM
Between February and July 2021, Discovery Education and War Child worked together to deliver extracurricular lessons to over 5000 students in Grades 7 to 12 who were at risk of dropping out of education across five regions in Lebanon, with a focus on Maths and Science.
Discovery Education will be well known to those involved in EdTech and computing. It is often described as: 'the global leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K-12 classrooms.'