education in lebanon
Transcription
education in lebanon
BEMO Industry Report Issue # 3/2014 EDUCATION IN LEBANON AUGUST 2014 EDUCATION IN LEBANON Growth Drivers Structure Primary & Secondary Cycles Tertiary Cycle Challenges & Recommendations Banque Bemo sal Asset Management Unit Riad El Solh Squar e Esseily Building - 7th Floor P.O. Box: 11-7048 Beirut - Lebanon Tel: +961 1 992705 www.bemobank.com CONTACT US Subsidiary/Sister Bank Bemo Securitization sal—BSEC 3rd Floor Bloc A Two Parc Av. Blg, Minet El Hosn Beirut - Lebanon Tel: +961 1 997998 Bemo Europe - Banque Privée Luxembourg 18 Bvd Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg Tel: +352 22 63 211 Paris 63 Avenue Mar ceau 75116 Par is - France Tel: +33 1 44 43 49 49 Advisor: Mr . Salim Chahine Phd Analyst: Mr . Philippe Farr an Education in Lebanon Table of contents Executive summary…………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………3 Growth Drivers…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Total expenditure on education………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Literacy rate……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Demographics…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 Rising income level…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 Government reforms………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6 Human development………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 Structure of education in Lebanon……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8 Schools types & languages………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9 Primary and secondary cycles…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10 Pre-primary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10 Primary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10 Intermediate………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…11 Secondary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11 Geographical & school type distribution…………………………………………………………………………………………..………12 Tertiary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13 Challenges & recommendations……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….14 2 Education in Lebanon Executive Summary Lebanon has endeavored to make significant progress in the former years to elevate it education and academic standards. Latest surveys indicate a literacy rate exceeding 90% amongst adults and 98.70% among youth. Lebanon exhibits tremendous gains in terms of more equitable access to formal education: The Literacy rate among youth females surpass that of youth males, countervailing the dominance of literate male adults over female adults at 93.50% and 86%. The country has also made significant improvements and reforms as to make primary schooling free and compulsory by the government, while rendering secondary education accessible to every child. The pillars upon which the ministry of education has founded its philosophy are: education based on equal opportunity, quality education to build a knowledge society, education to contribute to social integration and economic development. According to data collected from the World Bank, primary school enrollment increased from 87.71% in 2006 to 93.25% in 2012, while secondary school matriculation hovered between 67 and 69%. Nevertheless, the share of government spending dedicated to education remains at a feeble 7%, while the public spending on education as percentage of GDP is limited to an average of 2% for the past years. Statistics available by the Educational research and development center indicate the existence of 2786 schools with a total of 937,930 students. More than half of the students, 53.7%, are enrolled in private schools while the remaining students are enrolled in state schools, free private and UNRWA with 30%, 13% and 3% respectively. This is highly attributed to the presence of state schools in small villages with average intakes at around 50 students, as data shows that majority of students in Beirut are enrolled in private schools, 74% of total in the Capital. Despite of public school expenditure, the concentration of students per type reveals alarming, with student/public ratio is the lowest between all types of schools, and this emphasizes the need of government to invest in public schools and diversify its geographical presence to cater for all its citizens. Efforts were extended to include higher education which currently comprise one public university and 42 private university licensed from the ministry of education. Private universities opted for international accreditation and partnerships and they largely operate in English and French. Lebanon’s enrollment rate comes second in the MENA region with 46.265% compared to an average of 33.936%. But between 2000 and 2012 Lebanon witnessed a slow in the average enrollment rate growth with a CAGR of 1.46%, this is due to limited public higher education, with only one public university with poor infrastructure and geographical distribution. Nevertheless, despite high and increasing tuition fees, enrollment rates remained stable over the past years. The demand for education in Lebanon remains robust, as we can observe more universities are established as the existing ones have a penchant to expand geographically through new faculties. Furthermore, the difficult labor market sets more stringent qualifications and more intense competition amongst youth, thus compelling them to further pursue their higher education in order to secure employment. Furthermore enrollment rates in public schools are declining due to low public schools’ achievement that is directly related to teaching, administrative staff’s low qualifications and lack of suitable infrastructure and equipment. Higher education in Lebanon should have a proper vision with a regulated system in order to play an important role in prompting the economy forward. 3 Education in Lebanon Growth Drivers Total expenditure on Education Despite the evident increase in total education expenditure, which grew at a CAGR of 6.04% since the new millennium, it is solely attributed to the total GDP growth than to any external catalyst or driver related to the sector. Remarkably, we can observe the total share of government spending swerving in opposite direction, dropping to 1.95% of total GDP in 2008 from 2.56% in 2007. Government spending continued to linger at these meager levels reaching a low of 1.64% in 2011 before veering upwards to 2.20% subsequent to the “Quality Education for growth 2010-2015” reform plan announced in 2010. Strikingly, the trend of the private expenditure on education to a certain extent dovetailed abstemiously that of the public expenditure. The share of private expenditure of total GDP dropped from 4.44% in 2007 to 4.05% in 2008 to hover around 4.35% afterwards. Public Spending % GDP Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research As compared its neighboring countries, the trifling 2.20% contribution of direct public expenditure on education to GDP is considered diminutive. Tunisia has the highest rate of government spending on education (as % of GDP) at more than 6% followed by the Saudi Arabia and Morocco. The low level of public expenditure will undisputedly impede the future development of skilled and specialized labor. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research (In Millions) Public Expenditure Private Expenditure 2000 336 873 2001 502 734 2002 489 852 2003 -1,406 2004 537 929 2005 554 936 2006 595 931 2007 629 1,091 2008 562 1,167 2009 634 1,475 2010 635 1,646 2011 660 1,745 2012 952 1,641 Total Expenditure 1,208 1,235 1,341 1,406 1,467 1,490 1,526 1,720 1,730 2,108 2,281 2,405 2,592 Source: Worldbank Data, CAS Lebanon National Account 2011 , Bemo Research 4 Education in Lebanon Growth Drivers Literacy Rate The percentage of the population aged 15 or above that can understand, read and write a short simple statement on their everyday life in Lebanon stands at 89.61%. As compared to its neighboring countries, Lebanon shed its rank from having the highest literacy rate among adults to become the 6th in the MENA region. Oil exporting countries channeled their revenues towards investments in the education sector, thus ensuring the mainstay of labor and skills needed for the sustainability of their economies. Qatar leads at a literacy rate of 96.28%, followed by Jordan at 95.90% and Bahrain at 94.55%. Morocco and Yemen significantly lag peer countries at rates of 67.08% and 65.26% respectively. The average literacy rate for the MENA region stands at 79.16%. The governmental authorities in the Arab region displayed awareness in the past years, embarking on a series of measures and reforms to combat illiteracy under the patronage of the UNESCO. However, gender disparity is evident in the MENA region, the mean literacy rate for males is significantly higher than the combined male/female average, standing at 86.06% while the female literacy average results at 71.78%. This gender disparity is also apparent in Lebanon, whereas the literacy rate among adult females is 85.96% compared to 93.37% for males adults. Source: MICS 3 Survey - 2009, CAS, Bemo Research In 1980, three quarters of the females in the Arab World were illiterate; significant improvements were observed especially in Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar. However, despite these strides towards abridging the gender gap, many challenges that impede the advance in female literacy rate in the Arab world persist. The challenges include the substandard attitude towards female education, shortage of resources, early marriage, shortage of female schools and the lack in political commitment or inappropriate approaches to rectifying the situation. Literacy rate among adults, females and males In Lebanon, a survey conducted by the UNICEF with the input of CAS indicated that 74% of the Lebanese households have no illiterate members among them, 16% have strictly one, 6% have two members and 4% have three or more members. Looking into the gender details, the proportion of illiterate females is twice that of males while the share of females enrolled up to primary education also lags the male share at 25% for the former and 32% for the latter. According to a National Human Development Report, the adult literacy was witnessed to be the highest in Beirut, at 93.9% while in Nabatieh and Bekaa the literacy rate plummet to 83.3% and 83.2% respectively, underlining a regional disparity. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research 5 Education in Lebanon Growth Drivers Demographics The growth of the population in Lebanon fluctuated during the past decade. Growth rate reached a sub 5% level in 2003 but shortly soothed to hover around 1% for the past 3 years. The Lebanese population growth rate is lower than the world average growth rate and the MENA region’s growth rate. The MENA region, despite a notable slowdown in recent years, continues to grow at faster pace than the global rate, which stands at 1.2%. A growing population base, both as citizens and expatriate residents, will continue to drive demand for education. Source: Worldbank, Bemo Research Rising Income Level Income level is a critical factor in determining educational attainment. Observations indicated a rapid rise in education participation among countries with an increasing income. Several studies indicated that higher income implies an increase in the subjective well-being of individuals, which is also highly correlated with the educational level of an individual. Source: Worldbank, Bemo Research Income growth in Lebanon swung higher during 2007-2010 period, differing the regional and global trend, which contracted during that period. However, as the global sentiment for business improved, the unsettling events in Lebanon and its neighboring countries limited income growth to a minor growth lesser than 1%. Global income grew at a CAGR of 5.19% since the new millennium, compared to 5.61% in Lebanon and 9.28% in the MENA. The MENA average was mainly biased upwards due to a robust income growth in the GCC, driven by high oil prices. Income growth would increase the population demand for education which in turn will translate into better quality and increase private sector investment. Government Reform The education sector in Lebanon perceived several founding legislative and regulatory phases starting at the outset of the independence date. The various primary and secondary cycle related regulations were issued between 1968 and 1971. The noteworthy phase was in 1997 with the publication of the first constituent document. However, much needed reform incited the government to embark on a new set of reforms in 2010 through a five years plan to support the educational sector development program. 6 Education in Lebanon Growth Drivers Human Development According to the UNDP Human Development Index, Lebanon was ranked 65th among 187 countries surveyed with a score of 0.745 reflecting high development. Lebanon HDI grew from 0.714 in 2005 to 0.764 in 2012, an average annual increase of 0.6% The HDI measure the basic human development achievements in a country, which could intrinsically mask inequality. The Inequality adjusted Human development index, which accounts for inequality, indicated a score of 0.575, 24.73% lower than the initial score. However, in both indices, Lebanon still outclass the regional average which stands at 0.7348 for the HDI index and at 0.486 for the adjusted index. Education appears to be of utmost significance in the decrease of the human development index, both in Lebanon and the Arab region. Nearly the quarter of the loss of the human development index is attributed to inequality in education in Lebanon, whereas the share of the loss aggregates to 40% in the Arab region. This highlights the responsiveness needed from authorities to abridge the gaps in education access. Furthermore, human development was found to be highly correlated with education awareness, as parents have more penchant to enroll their children in schools to provide them with the necessary tools to secure employment. Government authorities must intervene to limit the geographical gap and the quality of education between private and public schools as people continue to avail private education. Source: UNDP Human Development Index, Bemo Research Lebanon 0.575 24.73 Loss due to inequality in life expectancy at birth (%) 13.5 Arab States 0.486 25.4 16.7 IHDI value Overall Loss (%) Source: UNDP Human Development Index, Bemo Research 7 Loss due to inequality Loss due to inequality in education (%) in income (%) 24.1 30 39.6 17.5 Education in Lebanon Structure of the Education System Pre-Primary Cycle Structure of the System The pre-primary program of study in Lebanon lasts for 3 years from the age of 3 to 5. The program allows its participants to grow on a personal, social and physical aspect. Most pre-primary schools are run and operated by private entities in Lebanon. Age 20 Tertiary 19 Primary Cycle 18 Primary education in Lebanon in Lebanon is a 5 years cycle starting at the age of 5. The major goals of primary education are to achieve basic literacy and numeracy as well as bases of science, mathematics and social sciences. 16 Intermediate Cycle 14 Intermediate education is 4 years program, divided into two cycles, two years each. It follows directly the elementary education. Between the two cycles, students can opt for an intermediate certificate of vocational brevet or vocational proficiency. At the end of the 4 years period, students sit for the “Brevet” exam which allows them to qualify for secondary school. 13 17 Secondary 15 12 11 Vocational Brevet Intermediate Certificate of Vocational Proficiency 10 9 Secondary Cycle 8 Secondary education extends to 3 years, and is divided into three main branches; General; Technical and Mechanical vocational training. The General branch includes specialties in Humanities, Economics, Life sciences or General Science. The Technical has more than 50 different specialties varying between schools. Subsequent to these 3 years, the student take the Lebanese baccalaureate exams related to their chosen specialty. A successful examination in the Lebanese Baccalaureate will grant the student a certificate that will allow him to pursue his higher studies in University. Primary 7 6 5 4 Pre Primary 3 2 Tertiary Cycle 1 Lebanese Universities offer various programs in 3 different languages. These program vary according to the concentration, the university, and the system elected (American or French). 0 Source: International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED97), Bemo Research 8 Education in Lebanon School Types & Languages State schools The state schools are run by the ministry of higher education, they are free apart from a nominal registration fee around 65$ and a family fund contribution that is decided by the ministry before the start of each scholastic year that is around also 65$. Free-Private schools Free private schools are free and nonprofit but their tuition is symbolic around $450. In addition to this, the ministry of higher education pays a subsidiary of a total of $26 million. There are 363 free private and which 289 are run by religious groups and the rest by either NGOs or private individuals. Private schools Private schools are not regulated by the ministry of higher education, and the tuition fees are in range of 1,500$ and 15,000$ per year. UNRWA schools There are 69 schools for basic education which they are spread throw the 12 Palestinian refugee camps. They only accept Palestinians families registered with UNRWA. The schools are free of charge and students receives textbooks for the year and return them at the end of the years. Languages Most schools in Lebanon use French as a language of tutoring due to history and colonization. In the meantime 717 schools out of 2786 teach in English followed by 23.44% of schools that have bilingual program. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research 9 Education in Lebanon Primary & Secondary Cycles Pre-Primary Cycle Pre-primary education prevalence has gained pace in the past few years, the gross percentage of pre-primary school enrollment has increased from 72.96% in 2005 to reach a high of 91.12% in 2012. Better awareness of the benefits of pre-primary education in children, especially among expatriates, is the main driver for the growth in preprimary school enrollment. Furthermore, although the male enrollment rate prevailed over that of the females, the two groups grew in tandem throughout his period, putting accent on the increased awareness for education among parents. The importance of an early pedagogical program should act as a beckon for authorities to intervene and regulate preprimary schools which to continue to be run mostly, at more than 80%, by private individuals. Primary Cycle Despite feeble government spending for education, the country has achieved a primary school net enrollment rate (NER) of 95.86% in 2003. Subsequent to that year, the net enrollment rate (NER) continued to register new lows reaching 87.71% in 2006. The contraction is chiefly attributed to the turmoil ensuing the assassination of the Prime Minister Rafik el Hariri and the Israeli War in 2005 and 2006 respectively. However, the rates shortly picked up from the sub 90 level to record 93.24% in 2012, exhibiting again the eminence of the Lebanese education system. An observation of the gross enrollment rate (GER) also indicates that the education system is in fine fettle: The number of late starters or grade repeaters, i.e. children outside the official primary school age, also dropped from 131% in the year 2000, to 106.58% in 2012. This is accentuated the chart showing the percentage of primary school repeaters, it dropped from 10.56% in 2004 to 8.24% in 2012, excluding an the abrupt swerve in 2012. However, scrutiny of the gender distribution of the net enrollment rate (NER) reveals a discrepancy between the sexes; 3.30% of boys do not attend while the girls’ abstention goes up to 11.13%. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research 10 Education in Lebanon Primary & Secondary Cycles Intermediate Cycle Despite the near saturation net enrollment rate for primary education, the average enrollment rate dwindles to a meager 87% in intermediate education. This indicates a significant number of dropouts and holdups during the primary cycle. However, sex discrepancy shifts, favoring the females, even though with a trifling difference. The females share is 52.5% of the total enrolled students at intermediate schools, while the males share stands at 47.7%. Secondary Cycle The enrollment rate at secondary education is significantly lower than previous cycles. In 2012, the net enrollment rate at secondary schools registered 67.52%, the lowest level in the observed period. The gross enrollment rate dovetails that of the net enrollment rate, dropping from 92.75% in 2000, to 73.98% in 2012. Gender disparity continues to favor females, with more heightened preference for females, whom constitute 55.8% of the total students enrolled in secondary school, as compared to 44.2% for males. However, enrollment rate for both genders was virtually moving in tandem. The parallel drift between the net enrollment and the repeaters to record lower rates suggest a high dropout rate among students in this cycle. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research 11 Education in Lebanon Primary & Secondary Cycles School & Students Regional Distribution Regional disparity is evident in the Lebanese education pattern, third of the total number of students are concentrated in Beirut, followed by the north curating for quarter of the student population. Mount Lebanon absorbs the smallest number of students. However, looking in to the student/school ratio, Beirut holds the highest concentration ratio at 450, followed by the south at 323, while Mount Lebanon’s student/school concentration remains relatively lower at 283. Bekaa has the lowest student/school ratio at 323. The majority of students in Beirut are enrolled in private schools, 74% of the total students in the Capital. Private school enrollment is also high in Mount Lebanon, representing 66% of the region student populace. Combined, the two regions offer education for nearly 43% of the total student population, mainly driven by the prevalence of private schools into these regions and better household financial resources to afford tuition, relatively to the others. Of the total students, 54% opt for private schools, 29% for Public schools and 13% and 4% are curated by Private-free and UNRWA bodies respectively. The concentration of students per type of schools reveal alarming concerns; The student/private school ratio stands at 398, the student/private-free ratio stands at 347.67, the student/UNRWA stands at 484 while the student/public ratio stands at 254.78. This signals a preference towards UNRWA (Restricted to Palestinians families) and Private-free schools among those who can’t afford private education or have no access to public schools. This emphasizes the need of the government to invest in public schools and diversify its geographical presence to cater for all its citizens. This is of utmost importance in the Bekaa for instance, where the literacy rate is relatively lower and quarter of its students are accommodated by private-free schools. Private-free schools offer simply primary education and this burdens the region with quarter of its population migrating towards public schools. Giving the high concentration of students in UNRWA schools, government support is need to curtail the gap in accessibility for education. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research 12 Education in Lebanon Tertiary Cycle Enrollment Rate Lebanon currently contains 42 legalized higher education institutions, which are totally supervised by the General directorate for higher education. Among those universities, 32 can offer higher education in Masters Education and have more than 3 faculties, 7 are colleges with strictly one faculty offering only bachelor degrees and 3 are for religious studies. These institutions offer many qualifications in various area of studies. The first degree that can be obtained is a bachelor degree of 3 years, followed by 2 more years to be awarded a master qualification. For instance, engineering and health sciences concentrations vary between 4 to 5 years and 6 to 7 years respectively. Lebanon’s enrollment rate in higher education comes second in the MENA region with 46.265%, compared to an average of 33.936%. Saudi Arabia tops the ranks, mainly due to many reforms made by the government. During the past decades, the tertiary education system in Saudi Arabia has introduced new programs and establishment on several universities and technical schools, in addition to the high participation of private initiatives, such as King Abdullah’s university of Science and Technology. The Kingdom witnessed a CAGR of 6.44% between 2000 and 2012. As for Lebanon, the CAGR stood at 1.46%. This sluggish growth is due to limited public higher education, with only one public university with poor infrastructure and geographical distribution. Nevertheless, despite high and increasing tuition fees, enrollment rates remained stable over the past years. Enrollment Rate Gender inequality is also apparent in the tertiary cycle, with an enrollment female to male ratio of 107.44%. Among the total students, females account for 53.72% while the males secure 46.28%. Majors In the recent years, most universities students were enrolled in Business and economics faculties at 27%, followed by Literature and humanities at 14.84%. Business and related fields as Finance, Accounting, Management and economics are among the most popular fields of study in universities due to the high demand for these majors in our modern economic system. Alarmingly, majors sin Education and teaching account for only 1.95% of the total students, indicating lack of interest in the fields and a future shortage of qualified academic bodies. Source: WorldBank Data, Center for Education & Development , Bemo Research 13 Education in Lebanon Challenges Demographic Challenges Contrasting the population growth in the MENA region, Lebanon continues to suffer from a meager growth with a declining birth rate at 2.5 child/woman. The weak growth altered the age structure in the country which currently comprise only 14% of the youth population aged between 15 and 24 years old. This rate averages around 25% in the MENA region, reaching a high of 40% in countries such as Iraq, Palestine, and the Yemen. The corollaries of the slow fertility rate in Lebanon are evident in an inverted age structure, revealing the bulk of the population to be middle aged. This present a vital challenge for the education industry as the youth population constitute the main demand driver. Labor Market The size of the Lebanese economy fails to adequately suffice the youth employment needs. The labor market is highly competitive and unfairly remunerated, in addition to being corrupted with nepotism. The oversupply of human capital is evident in the high emigration rates; many students seek opportunities outside Lebanon to ensure a proper return on their investment in education. Public Spending % GDP Various factors contributed to weaken the Lebanese Labor market and increase unemployment, these factors include social and political instability, high corruption, poor governance, etc. However, the unemployment profile in Lebanon raise a red flag; while the unemployment is usually attributed by older generations and less educated groups, the unemployed in Lebanon are mostly educated wit university degrees. Furthermore, the Lebanese employers unwillingness to pay higher wage for skills, limits the youth demand for education as additional degrees will not grant them a better standard of living. The Lebanese university Unfortunately, the absence of a cachet, weak alumni presence, and deficiency of high qualifications limits the students appetite and hence their enrollment to the Lebanese University. Furthermore, the Lebanese university’s capricious management and dispersion of faculties further aggravates the inequality and weakens the competitiveness of the public education. Source: Worldbank Data, Bemo Research 14 Education in Lebanon Challenges Dearth of Skilled Teachers The quality of education in Lebanon remains subprime to that of the developed countries mainly on the account of the absence of a skilled academic body. This is highly attributed to the low pay wages and encouragements offered for teachers. As education becomes more and more international, this situation is very likely to further reduce the competitiveness of the education in Lebanon. Syrian Refugees According to data provided by the UNHCR, there are more than a million Syrian refugee in Lebanon. Through part of its signature to the relevant human right treaties, Lebanon introduced regulatory and financial support for Syrian refuges in the Lebanese education system. The authorities gave the refuges the right to attend public schools as well as private paying schools, waived the tuition fees and expenses for textbooks in the public schools and allowed all Syrians to enroll in spite of missing two years or more of schooling. However, public schools do not have the capacity to absorb all Syrian refugee school age population during regular teaching hours. Figures indicate about 89,300 Syrian aged between 5 and 17 are currently registered in Lebanese public schools and 300,000 currently registered or awaiting registration with UNHCR. This does not strictly present a hurdle for the short run, but could extend to the labor market, further increasing unemployment rate, as Syrians have the right to work in Lebanon. Recommendations ● Reallocation of the public expenditure on education to cover all the regions in Lebanon thus tightening the gap between the regions and decreasing the inequality by providing education access to all citizens. ● Adopt new strategies and initiatives to encourage investments in physical capital to ensure new job creation ● Diversify the presence of the Lebanese University and introduce new qualifications with more orientation towards the use of technology. ● Revision of teachers statues and encouraging them to pursue training and qualifications ● Encourage the participation in research and publications as form of public goods that are issued by universities. ● Promote coordination between the government and public universities from a development perspective, to have a clear objectives and budgetary allocation guide to ensure a proper funding and avoid duplication and waste of resources. ● Encourage the participation of employers in the management and financing of education and training to abridge the gap between human development and the skills required ● Empower regulatory bodies to develop applicable accreditation standards in public and private institutions. ● Opt for international curriculums which exposes students to cosmopolitan environments ● Encourage international accreditation from United State and European institutions, and gain credit and recognition that maintain suitable standards. ● Increase the application and use of technology in education ● Improving the quality of teaching and learning and promoting quality learning outcomes 15