Saudi KSrelief Distributes Food Aid Tons in Sudan’s Khartoum

Saudi KSrelief Distributes Food Aid Tons in Sudan’s Khartoum

Lebanese Children 'Miss Out' on Education as Crisis Takes Toll

Rana Hariri doesn't know when she'll be able to send her children back to school, as Lebanon's grinding economic crisis thrusts the fate of public education into uncertainty.

Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers' strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system, and in some cases being forced to work.

Hariri, 51, says her nine-year-old daughter Aya "repeatedly asks me: 'When will I go back to school?' But I do not know what to tell her."

Lebanon's public institutions have been crumbling since the economy collapsed in late 2019, pushing most of the population into poverty and dealing a heavy blow to state schools, AFP said.

Public sector workers, including teachers, have repeatedly gone on strike as the value of their salaries crashed after the Lebanese pound lost more than 98 percent of its worth against the dollar.

"My children stayed at home for three months last year due to the strikes," said Hariri.

She had hopes that her 14-year-old daughter Menna would someday become a doctor.

But now, "I just hope she'll be able to go to school in the first place," she said,