For 13-year-old Manal, distance learning initiatives in Lebanon are paving a path back to school

(Courtesy of Across the Pond/Malala Fund)

Malala Fund Education Champions are navigating compounded crises to help Syrian refugees learn in Lebanon.

Since leaving her home country of Syria amid a civil war, 13-year-old Manal has lived in Faraya, a village and ski range tucked away in Lebanon’s northern mountains. Manal and her family consider themselves lucky; they had relatives in the area who helped them relocate and her father found a job as a janitor. Here in Faraya, Manal shares a small, single-room house with her family, which has also been her classroom during the COVID-19 crisis.

When the pandemic reached Lebanon in March of 2020, schools across the country suspended in-person classes indefinitely. Manal began participating in distance learning from her Faraya home, using WhatsApp to communicate with her teachers whenever she could. But online school posed a number of challenges for Manal, starting with her home environment. “I was studying in a very small house with my parents, brother and two sisters,” she explains. “There was too much noise to concentrate.” Manal also struggled to receive assignments and feedback from her teachers, a common problem for students living in areas of Lebanon where internet access is limited.

Eventually Manal met a Lebanese Alternative Learning (LAL) team member in her neighbourhood. Led by Malala Fund Education Champion Nayla Zreik Fahed, LAL offers digital learning solutions to girls living in vulnerable communities in Lebanon. Through LAL Manal was introduced to Tabshoura, an internet- and electricity-free digital learning platform, and provided with Tabshoura in a Box, a small server uploaded with Tabshoura content that produces its own hotspot. LAL also provided Manal with a tablet and headphones to help her focus in her noisy environment. Equipped with these tools, Manal was able to complete her school year at her own pace, focusing on areas of improvement. “I mainly learned math which I’m thankful for because I struggled a lot with math at school,” she says.

Then, on August 4, 2020, a large explosion tore through Beirut’s port, killing over 200 people and damaging 163 schools. The blast strained a school system already overwhelmed by an acute economic crisis and rapid currency devaluation; an estimated 100,000 students were anticipated to switch from private to public schools as parents struggled to afford high private school tuition fees. That number increased as families dealt with the physical and financial consequences of the port explosion.

“As I am from Syrian origin, every year the schools make me and my siblings wait before admitting us registration. I always fear I won’t be accepted into school.”

— Manal

Though LAL’s offices and many staff members’ homes were badly damaged in the blast, Nayla worked quickly to help the organisation adapt to Lebanon’s changing circumstances and ensure girls like Manal could continue learning. Using Malala Fund’s COVID-19 grant, LAL embarked on remote pedagogy projects, teaching educators in Lebanon how to create and upload internet-free, interactive resources and providing them with ready-to-use activities for students with limited access to technology.

“These are projects that students can complete using their own environment — pens, paper, books and creativity,” says Nayla. As the need for digital learning resources increased in Lebanon, LAL — as part of the digital learning initiative launched by the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) — saw its user base for Tabshoura jump from 7,000 to 40,000 students over the course of a few months. Encouraged by these numbers, LAL is now working on developing a Tabshoura app to make it even easier for students to access its resources offline and from home.

Before the blast, Manal often worried about her chances of enrolling in public school as a refugee. “As I am from Syrian origin, every year the schools make me and my siblings wait before admitting us registration,” Manal says. “I always fear I won’t be accepted into school.” But with access to LAL’s many resources, Manal was able to pass her end-of-term exams with high marks and secure a spot in her local public school.

For now, Manal and her classmates are still learning from home. But with recovery underway, she hopes she will soon be back in the classroom studying her favourite subject: Arabic. “I love the Arabic language,” Manal says, “I want to become a journalist.” As Lebanon rebuilds amid multiple crises, it’s up to her leaders to ensure she succeeds.