Lebanese Pupils Protest against 'Outdated' Curriculum

W460

Several hundred school pupils protested Thursday in Lebanon against what they described as an outdated curriculum that makes no mention of the multi-confessional country's 15-year civil war.

The protest outside the education ministry in Beirut was the latest in a nationwide anti-government street movement to have gripped Lebanon since October 17.

"Our history books need to be thrown out," 16-year-old Jana Jezzine said as around her protesters waved the national flag and one woman made a show of burning a schoolbook.

History lessons in school textbooks stop with the withdrawal of French troops in 1946 -- three years after the end of France's 23-year mandate over Lebanon.

But a lack of consensus over a common version of the 1975-1990 civil war in the country has led to it being completely omitted from the curriculum.

Likewise, textbooks make no mention of key events afterwards, such as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 or the mass protests that ended Syria's military presence in 2005.

Eighteen-year-old Aya Haider said she had endlessly studied the First and Second World Wars, but had been taught almost nothing of her country's recent history.

"I know nothing about the civil war," she told AFP, in a country where each religious community has its own version of historical events.

"My parents and friends told me that people would get stopped because of their identity cards," she said, referring to militiamen singling out members of certain religious sects at checkpoints during the conflict.

The rest, she says, she learned in dribs and drabs through acquaintances during the recent anti-graft protests.

Since last month, Lebanese from all religious backgrounds have taken to the streets en masse to cry out against what they view as an incompetent and corrupt ruling class.

School pupils and university students have emerged as a leading force during the demonstrations in recent weeks, saying they will gladly lose a year's schooling to help rebuild their country.

Lebanon's economy is under severe strain after a series of political crises compounded by the eight-year war in neighboring Syria, and youth unemployment stands at more than 30 percent.

Comments 1
Thumb chrisrushlau 22 November 2019, 18:20

Did your text say that France used airpower and poison gas on Damascus when its people rejected the French takeover in 1918, killing 10,000?
Did you read Article 24 of your Constitution?
Lebanon's Constitution of 1926 with Amendments through 2004
Article 24
The Chamber of Deputies consists of elected representatives whose number and the manner of the election are determined by the electoral laws in effect.
Until the Chamber of Deputies issues an Electoral Law, outside the sectarian record, representative seats are distributed according to the following rules:
a. Equally between Christians and Moslems.
b. Proportional . . . Exceptionally, and once, representative seats vacant at the date of publishing this Law, and the seats created by the Electoral Law, are filled . . . in implementation of the equality between the Christians and the Moslems, according to the National Détente Document. The Electoral Law determines the details of the application of this Article.