Mattresses where there should be desks: the return to school in Lebanon amidst the displacement crisis

Sidon (Beirut)In a public school in Sidon, the start of the academic year is unlike any other year. Some classrooms remain occupied by displaced families. Their belongings fit into a few bags, and the spaces where desks should be placed remain divided into small corners for sleeping. More than a million people were displaced during this year's hostilities in Lebanon, among whom were about 390,000 children, according to Unicef. The organization also warns that 340 schools have been damaged or destroyed, leaving thousands of students at risk of starting the school year without a classroom.

For some children, the problem is not yet having a home to return to. For others, it is not being able to pay for tuition, books, uniforms, or transport. In the south of the country, even deciding which school a child will attend depends on where the family will be able to live. Maya, 16, still does not know when or where she will continue her studies. First, she needs to know where her family will be in a few days.

Maya has spent three years watching her education adapt to each displacement. After leaving her village at the end of 2023, she followed classes remotely. After the 66-day war in 2024, she returned to studying in a school with prefabricated classrooms. When the war broke out again in March, she fled once more. She finished her last year of high school remotely, where ten people were sleeping in one classroom. "I couldn't even open a book. If I wanted to read, I had to use my mobile phone for light," she recalls.

Now she wanted to enroll in an institute in Nabatieh, but the new bombings around the city and the Ali al-Taher hill have once again put her plans on hold. Her story is repeated throughout much of the south. During the war, hundreds of public schools were used as shelters. Although most have recovered their educational function, about 80 still house displaced families. Nearly half have been evacuated to prepare for the return of students; around 30 will have to reconcile classes with housing displaced people, and nine will continue to function as shelters.

The Ministry of Education is trying to find a solution for each center. In some schools, families will be moved to other shelters. In others, students will be sent to centers located in safer areas, or classes will continue remotely because teachers are also displaced.

Unaffordable costs

Security is not the only barrier. For many families, returning to school also means crunching numbers. Since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019, private education has become steadily more expensive. This year, parent associations estimate new increases of between 15% and 30%. Tuition fees at some centers range between 1,700 and 8,000 dollars a year, without counting books, school supplies, uniforms, transport, meals, or activities.

For displaced families, the effort is even greater. After months or years paying rent, repairing damaged homes, or living without stable income, many have exhausted their savings. Some go into debt to keep their children in school. Others move them from private to public centers. Ramia Eid made this decision after years of trying to keep her children in a private school. She did not do it because she considered public school better. Simply put, she could no longer afford it: "What could I do? Leave them without school?", she explains.

Last school year, almost half of the parents with children in public schools surveyed claimed to have transferred them from private centers. Nine out of ten pointed to cost as the main reason.

In the south, the choice between public and private school is also mixed with fear. Lamia, who is a teacher, decided to take her two daughters out of the private school in Nabatieh and enroll them in the public institute where she herself teaches. "If the war starts again, they will be with me," she says.

But public school does not always offer a simple solution either. Teachers' salaries remain well below pre-crisis levels, and a significant portion of teachers work with temporary contracts. Class interruptions have affected a system that already had limited resources for years.

In schools converted into shelters, distance learning does not solve the problem either. There may be a lack of internet connection or sufficient devices. Sometimes there is one phone or computer for several children in the same family. And after years of displacement, many students carry a considerable educational delay.

For children who are still sleeping in a school, the return to school has a contradiction that is difficult to explain. The building continues to be the shelter, but it should also return to being the place where they learn.

In the south, some directors are preparing classrooms without knowing how many students will be able to arrive. Others are still waiting for another building to be assigned to them. And some families continue to wait for something much more basic: knowing if they will be able to return home. For thousands of Lebanese children, this September is not just about starting the school year, buying books, or preparing their backpacks. It is, above all, about having a place to study again.