Situation Analysis
The focus of the education partners in September and October was on the Back-to-School campaign. This year public education is free for all children in Lebanon and the aim of the campaign was to get as many Lebanese and Syrian school age children as possible into certied formal basic education. The outreach campaign ocially started on September the 21st when the Minister of Education held a press conference in presence of UNICEF, UNHCR and international donors. Outreach plans were developed at national and regional level in close coordination with MEHE and partners on the ground to reach out and disseminate information to communities and invite them to enrol their children in the Lebanese public schools and/or UNWRA schools. The Lebanese public schools started on 28 September, while the afternoon second shift classes started on 12 October. The UNWRA schools started this year on 7 September.
During the reporting period, many education NGO partners dedicated programme sta to the campaign. Regional education partner meetings were held to plan the dierent outreach activities, specically regarding intervention areas, kinds of activities and distribution of materials. The eld outreach plans included the education sector partners and information on the campaign was also disseminated to all partners of other sectors. In addition, municipalities, mayors, community actors and groups, youth committees and Refugee Outreach Volunteers (ROVs) played a crucial part in the roll out of the campaign. The main outreach activities including household visits, awareness sessions, distribution of leaets, yers and posters, Q&A, partner hotlines, and media and online publicity. Partners also worked closely with communities to mobilize and train parent groups to support formal schools and to establish homework support groups to directly support learning outcomes in formal second shift schools.
As of August 2015, there were 482,034 registered refugee children between 3 and 17 years old in Lebanon. The Minister of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) has indicated that 200,000 refugee children can enter rst and second shifts in public schools in an eort to integrate more school-aged refugees into the formal system. So far, 155,095 refugee children are enrolled in basic education (62,500 in 1st shift and 92,595 in 2nd shift). Out of this number an estimated 14,000 children are reportedly not attending, mostly because of distance to the schools. In-depth analysis and follow-up is underway in the eld to track the children who dropped out to nd ways to re-enrol them. Furthermore, a total of 5,321 Palestinian refugee children from Syria (PRS) have registered in 63 UNRWA schools across Lebanon.
Overall, enrolment in the Lebanese formal system increased by 60% compared to 2014-15.
On 11 September, MEHE organized a meeting for all local and international NGOs implementing activities that target school age children to discuss formal education enrolment, non-formal education programs, and the support of NGO’s. The meeting underlined the importance of the role of NGOs in outreach and referring children to formal education opportunities.