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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
The American University of Beirut campus
Courtesy Aramco World
The Lebanese, along with the Palestinians, had one of the
highest literacy rates in the Arab world. The rate was estimated at
nearly to 80 percent in the mid-1980s, but like most other spheres
of Lebanese life, communal and regional disparities existed. In
general, Christians had a literacy rate twice that of Muslims.
Druzes followed with a literacy rate just above that of Sunnis.
Shias had the lowest literacy rate among the religious communities.
The war adversely affected educational standards. Many private
and public school buildings were occupied by displaced families and
the state was unable to conduct official examinations on several
occasions because of intense fighting. Furthermore, the departure
of most foreign teachers and professors, especially after 1984,
contributed to the decline in the standards of academic
institutions. Admissions of unqualified students became a standard
practice as a result of pressures brought by various militias on
academic institutions. More important, armed students reportedly
often intimidated--and even killed--faculty members over disputes
demanding undeserved higher grades.
In the 1980s there were three kinds of schools: public, private
tuition-free, and private fee-based. Private tuition-free schools
were available only at the preprimary and primary levels, and they
were most often sponsored by philanthropic institutions. Many
private fee-based schools were run by religious orders.
Public schools were unevenly distributed among Lebanon's
districts. The Beirut area had only 12.9 percent of the country's
public schools, but a large number of Lebanon's private fee-based
schools concentrated in or near Greater Beirut,
(see table _,Distribution of Students by Muhafazat, Appendix A).
Data as of December 1987
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