Crisis-Hit Lebanon to Reopen Classrooms Starting Next Month

Crisis-Hit Lebanon to Reopen Classrooms Starting Next Month

Students in Lebanon will return to the classroom starting next month, the education minister said Monday, amid fears an accelerating economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic would prevent schools from reopening.

Rights groups have decried an "education catastrophe", with more than a million children in Lebanon out of school since the country's Covid-19 outbreak began in February last year.

Other students are at risk of never returning, the groups have warned, due to a financial downturn that has seen poverty rates soar to reach 78 percent of the population.

Classrooms will gradually reopen starting September 27, outgoing education minister Tarek Majzoub told a press conference on Monday.

The decision covers both private and public schools as well as technical learning centers. All are to reopen by October 4 at the latest, he added. 

Lebanon had moved to distanced learning in March last year due to the pandemic, with intermittent returns to the classroom for some students.

But power cuts, internet outages and the economic crisis have made online instruction a luxury, as families struggle to afford food, yet alone laptops and mobile phone devices. 

Schools have threatened to shut because of extortionate operating costs amid rampant inflation.

In an attempt to ease their burden, Majzoub said public schools would