.Lebanon (MNN) — Lebanon continues to face the worst financial crisis in the nation’s history. Teachers have suffered significantly as a result.
Julia Wallace with the Beirut Baptist School (a ministry of LSESD) in Beirut, Lebanon says, “You have teachers being laid off. You have teachers immigrating to other countries, or you have teachers staying in Lebanon and living off of significantly reduced salaries. For instance, a teacher’s salary that used to be equivalent to about 1,600 US dollars a month is now probably worth around $240 a month.”
Most students in Lebanon attend private schools that employ roughly 59,000 teachers. During the financial crisis, many families can no longer pay tuition, meaning teachers have to work with fewer resources. Wallace says, “I do think Lebanon is at a critical juncture for its entire education sector. Because if the private education sector collapses, the entire Lebanese education sector collapses, since it is such a large portion of it. So what we see happening is lots of students are, are being pulled from private schools and put into public schools, which are already significantly underfunded. And so you have too many students for the infrastructure of public schools.”
Beirut Baptist School walks alongside students and their families in this difficult time. Pray their care will show the love of Jesus during the financial crisis.
You can also get involved with the work LSESD is doing in Lebanon by donating here.
(Photo courtesy of LSESD)