BEIRUT — Caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi announced new measures on Tuesday for schools and private higher education institutions amid the ongoing conflict, effective until Nov. 9.

Lebanon marks one year of the attrition conflict, which escalated into a war between Hezbollah and Israel in late September — with the Israeli army targeting the party across various regions in Lebanon, including Beirut and its suburbs. Over the past year, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, with nearly 9,800 others injured.

According to the National News Agency, Halabi authorized private schools to use "modern technologies and means of communication to provide educational material." Private schools opting for online learning must notify the Ministry's Private Education Department and ensure students meet the required standards of knowledge and skills.

Private schools may also offer in-person classes if they assess the "risks that may arise in light of the current situation," gain approval from their parents' committee and inform the ministry's Special Education Department. Schools that open for in-person learning assume full responsibility for any consequences.

Halabi also introduced a decision to coordinate education efforts during emergencies by assigning tasks to relevant units within the ministry — in line with the formation of a higher committee to manage education in emergency, crisis and disastrous situations.

For higher education, institutions are urged to provide in-person classes where possible or adopt hybrid teaching models. Blended learning, combining in-person and remote classes based on individual students' circumstances, is encouraged, with full remote teaching permitted only in exceptional cases.

Private higher education institutions are required to "adopt total remote teaching, within very narrow limits, when traditional, hybrid or blended teaching is not feasible."

The minister specified that online learning does not include "field activities, applied and practical work which are subject to class attendance, as well as evaluation activities, tests and exams of all kinds that constitute the subject's grade."

For higher education institutions that are unable to start classes immediately, the annual "teaching calendar could be revised to allow them, if possible, to start and end the academic year within the traditional teaching timelines, even if this means canceling the summer semester."