| The Education Index | |
| Education
is considered to be a basic indicator in the measurement and analysis of
the level of human development, poverty and living conditions. It is
regarded as an expression of a basic human right, namely, the right to
knowledge. It also expresses an economic and social need in the case of
the poor and society alike. As shown in the preceding chapters, the level of education is closely correlated with the living conditions index, and with the income-related indicators; as well as with the demographic characteristics of households, and their living and behavioral patterns and health indicators. The relationship between the education sector and the labor market in Lebanon has gone through different phases, assuming a variety of educational and social functions, in a context characterized by diversity with respect to the types of schools and their distribution between the public and private sectors. In general, the curricula have stressed the general and theoretical aspects of knowledge, while adopting the principle of duality of languages (three in latter years) for two reasons. The first has to do with the orientation of the Lebanese economy towards services; and the second with the need to prepare cadres to fill posts in an expanding public administration (including the expansion of education itself and the need for training teachers), especially starting with the mandate of President Fouad Chehab. The education system, however, has generally been slow in adapting to new and emerging needs, which weakened its link with the labor market. Education continued to be viewed as a means for acceding to the civil service (teaching and other administrative functions), or a means for social promotion through membership in one of the highly-esteemed professions (medicine, engineering, law...), while the requirements of production were neglected. It is in this sense that aversion to technical and vocational education, and lack of sufficient interest in public education, can be understood. It also makes it possible to understand the mechanisms responsible for the decline in the value of and return on education in an economic cycle in which the agricultural sector requires the involvement of the entire household in an activity managed in a traditional manner; and where public employment has mushroomed while wages declined in real terms. This has left the security sectors, which paid higher salaries without demanding high educational qualifications, as the main employment outlet. The war had much to do with the current state of education. This had less to do with ensuring sufficient places for all students, especially at the basic education levels, than with the quality of education, equality of opportunity, school dropout and weak links with the labor market; at a time when access to free education was becoming difficult, and tuition fees and other education-related costs kept on rising. This type of problems is most acute when it comes to the relation between the level of education and living conditions. In this context, the diversity of institutions of education - between public and free and non-free private schools - plays a basic role. |
