Ramadan decorations inside a classroom, as displaced people receive medical assistance inside a public school turned shelter, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 7, 2026. (Credit: Claudia Greco)
BEIRUT — Education Minister Rima Karameh addressed students and teaching staff to mark the start of the academic year, saying that the return will be "gradual, taking into account the reality of each school."
Thousands of students, parents and teachers have been displaced several times by Israeli attacks and threats over the past three years. In an education system already battered by successive crises, the war has "exacerbated structural inequalities and deeply rooted vulnerabilities," according to the Center for Lebanese Studies’ Education Justice in Times of War report, published in April 2026. Israel’s occupation of swathes of southern Lebanon and its continuing attacks now threaten to deepen those inequalities further.
"The return will be gradual, taking into account the reality of each school, to restore the educational process as quickly as circumstances allow," Karameh said, according to the state-run National News Agency. "Diagnostic assessments will help us identify our students’ needs and direct support to them."
"Our return to school therefore marks the beginning of a path toward recovery and the restoration of what we have lost in terms of learning and security," she added.
"As for our responsibility at the Education Ministry, it does not end with reopening schools. Our responsibility is to safeguard the continuity of learning, help our schools recover, provide teachers and students with the support they need, and use assessments and data to identify where the gaps lie and direct support where it is most needed," Karameh said.
She noted that the ministry's goal "is not to return to where Lebanon was before the crisis, but to recover what it lost in terms of learning and build schools that are better able to protect every student’s right to learn."
At the start of the month, Karameh toured several schools in southern Lebanon, noting that no student should be left without access for the 2026 academic year. During the tour, she said the priority is to maintain "in-person classes, wherever possible," while acknowledging that some schools will have to begin the year with remote learning.
UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned two months ago that at least 100,000 Lebanese students could be unable to attend school next term if urgent action was not taken to rehabilitate schools damaged by the war before September.
