Catholic schools in Lebanon are on life support

"We can't do it anymore; we live in constant anxiety," says Sister Mary Youssef, secretary general of the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross in Lebanon.

She’s worried about the future of her religious congregation’s three schools, which educate nearly 3,000 students. 

Two of the institutions are located in the mountains and are bracing for a harsh winter.

"The families are from modest backgrounds. With the crisis in the country, they prefer to buy food than to pay for schooling," Sister Mary Youssef explains.

She points out that it is not uncommon to see children arriving at school with "empty sandwiches".

Aid from France

Lebanon has some 330 Catholic schools that educate more than 200,000 pupils. 

And despite foreign aid provided by the Charles-Personnaz Fund (1.6 million euros for 115 schools in 2020 and 1.55 million euros in 2021) and by Franc (6 million euros allocated to 55 private establishments registered with the Agency for French Education Abroad and LabelFrancÉducation), these schools are at the end of their rope.

The cause is repercussions from two years of crisis in Lebanon, which is in the midst of economic and social collapse. 

According to the United Nations, some 80% of the population has been plunged into poverty. 

The Lebanese pound has depreciated by 90% against the dollar and wages have been slashed, while daily costs (food, medicine, fuel) have skyrocketed.

This deleterious situation was preceded by years of non-payment of state subsidies to semi-free schools that religious congregations set up in the 1950s. 

It is also due to the increase in salaries for private teachers, which the state unilaterally imposed in 2017.

Support for the work of Œuvre d'Orient

"Aid from Œuvre d'Orient has allowed us to reduce the school fees of our students, but these fees are so high, especially to compensate for the almost non-existent public electricity through the use of private generators, that administering the schools is becoming very complicated," says Sister Mary Youssef.

"Pegging fuel oil to the dollar has changed the situation," adds Vincent Gelot, Œuvre d'Orient's project director for Lebanon and Syria.

His organization has been helping Eastern Christian for more than 160 years. But the situation in Lebanon is now desperate. 

In the mountain town of Hrajel, a bit more than 25 miles north of Beirut, the principal of a school that educates 380 students had to ask the Franciscan Sisters to help pay the teachers' salaries, since only 10-15% of the pupils have paid their tuition.  

It is the same situation in the north of the country, where Father Marcel Nasta runs a network of 12 elementary schools, 11 of which are semi-free.

They depend on funding from the Diocese of Tripoli, but there have been economic difficulties there, as well, since clashes in 2011 between rival Muslim groups.

"People are so poor that it has become difficult for them to buy anything but bread," Father Nasta observes.

As a result, only 30 percent of the students were able to pay their school tuition in 2020.

The priest predicts an "almost black future" if no solution is found. He juggles with the subsidies granted by Œuvre d'Orient to pay teachers' salaries, but there is a shortage of school supplies.

Despite everything, he wants to "hold on", especially since his schools are "essential for living together", welcoming students of all faiths, with a large majority of Muslims.

“The very essence of Lebanon’s identity”

Closing Catholic schools would touch "the very essence of Lebanon's existence, its identity, its conviviality, its living together", says Father Youssef Nasr, secretary general for Catholic schools in the country.

"Their closure would pose a very high risk. We are doing our best to maintain them, especially where there are no public schools," he says.

Although he welcomes foreign aid, Father Nasr says it is insufficient to guarantee the "sustainability of the schools in the face of exploding operating costs, multiplied by 20 with the crisis".

Vincent Gelot of the Œuvre d'Orient is working for sustainable solutions to the problem of electricity by installing solar panels. 

But he is worried about schools that are just barely "in survival mode", since they are a "vector of peace" and one of the last pillars of Lebanon.