ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic, believed to have affected nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries, has also had major impacts on the Arab world. In Lebanon, education systems were facing challenges before COVID-19. Now, while curricula were newly designed and innovative approaches tested, this crisis has eventually stimulated more innovation within the education sector, especially in terms of distance learning. There remain, however, challenges to overcome: teachers are not adequately trained to integrate digital tools in a pedagogical approach. There is a gap between mastering digital tools (platforms, software, etc.) and integrating them in lesson plans and online teaching (remote pedagogy). Moreover, economical and logistical problems complicate the situation: students lack reliable internet access and are thus excluded from digital learning.
This chapter analyses selected challenges that Lebanon’s educational system is confronted with, suggests options to make remote learning more effective and recommends steps that teachers and students, as well as schools and universities, need to undergo in order to make the best use of this new culture of learning that COVID-19 is about to trigger.
