UNICEF Reaffirms Commitment To Provide Children In Lebanon With Education

1/24/2025 7:13:36 AM

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BEIRUT, Jan 24 (KUNA) -- The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reaffirmed on Friday its commitment to continue supporting the government of Lebanon in providing quality and inclusive education to all children in the country.
UNICEF Representative in Lebanon Akhil Iyer said, in a press statement on the International Day of Education, that due to the war, the beginning of the 2024-2025 scholastic year was challenging for children, parents and caregivers, teachers and schools.
He said the UNICEF supported the Ministry of Education and Higher Education's (MEHE) emergency response to prevent a lost school year by quickly resuming learning when it was safe and practical.
"This was not only essential for children's learning and development but also provided them with much needed social and emotional stability," he added.
Iyer urged the government of Lebanon to continue to place education at the top of the political agenda with a commitment to equitable and efficient domestic public financing to ensure that every child can access quality, safe and inclusive education.
He said that progress has been made in the education sector in recent years through Transition and Resilience Education Fund (TREF), pointing out that there remains a severe education and learning crisis in Lebanon with many children far behind their peers in the region.
He pointed out that the number of out of school children has significantly increased since 2019, with 1 in 3 children of all school aged children in Lebanon now estimated to be out of school or out of learning.
The UNICEF Representative praised their strong partnership with the government to support education in Lebanon, expressing his hope to continue the collaboration to accelerate the reforms initiated by MEHE to build a quality, inclusive, and efficient education system.
Since the establishment of the TREF, UNICEF, with the generous support of international partners, has been allocating over USD 85 million annually to support MEHE programs on education and accelerate progress to improve performance of the education system. (end)
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