ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book highlights the numerous challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the Middle East and North Africa region. It analyses how schools in Lebanon were institutionally unprepared for the sudden need for distance learning, just as teachers and pupils were unprepared to be collective agents and clients of education, respectively. The book then illustrates how the kingdom’s ruling classes – particularly the royal court around King Mohammed VI – have used the pandemic to further limit the influence of ‘secondary elites’. It also examines how the political leadership of the United Arab Emirate has turned the crisis into a chance to brand their country as a ‘savvy, high-tech nation’ and an attractive, reliable partner for other countries in their fight against the pandemic.
