Inclusive and equitable quality education, the core commitment of Sustainable Development Goal 4, remains out of reach for a large proportion of school-aged children in Lebanon. The country’s education system has suffered a series of overlapping crises in the past decade: the Syrian refugee influx, economic collapse, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Beirut port explosion and, most recently, the Israeli aggression in 2024. Each of these crises, along with inherent inequalities, has tested the system’s ability to provide quality, equitable, and inclusive education. The latest war displaced over 1.3 million people, turned schools into shelters, delayed the academic year, and left over 650,000 students out of school – including Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian children. As the country begins to emerge from the war under a fragile ceasefire, there is an urgent need for educational recovery and systemic transformation.

This policy brief is based on a document analysis of pre-existing inequalities in the education system in Lebanon and an assessment of the impact of the Israeli aggression between October 2023 and November 2024 on the education system. We also conducted 93 qualitative interviews with Lebanese and Syrian parents of school-aged children from the areas most severely affected by the war, as well as 16 key informant interviews with education providers, community leaders, and teachers in private and public schools. We analysed the interviews deploying an intersectional lens, exploring the interaction between displacement dynamics, changing socioeconomic conditions, place of origin, gender, disability, and nationality/legal status to better understand what a more inclusive approach in education could mean in Lebanon after war and displacement.

Our starting point for this work was to approach inclusion in a holistic manner, encompassing structural conditions that impede access, pedagogical dimensions for quality, and broader processes of belonging and social cohesion. Thus, focusing on equity, critical pedagogy, voice and agency, structural change, and intersectionality (Cruz et al., 2023).

Read the full policy brief here.