As Lebanon prepares to reopen schools on September 15, thousands of displaced people are still living in public schools, creating a difficult challenge for families, students and education officials.
In the southern coastal city of Tyre, about 200 families are sheltering inside a school gymnasium. Many fled villages farther south that have been heavily damaged or remain inaccessible amid the continuing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
For children living in the shelters, the start of the academic year is bringing uncertainty rather than a return to normal life.
Eleven-year-old Fatima Khashab is among those waiting. Her family has repeatedly been displaced during the conflict, and she now sleeps with relatives in a makeshift area separated by tarps inside the school.
“I want to go back to school and stay in our own house,” Fatima said.
Thousands remain displaced as school year approaches
Lebanon’s school year is scheduled to begin on September 15, but thousands of displaced families have not been able to return home.
According to the United Nations humanitarian office, about 350,000 people remain displaced across Lebanon. Most have found accommodation with relatives or rented homes, but approximately 21,000 people are still living in collective shelters.
Some of those shelters are public schools.
Education officials say around 80 schools are still being used as shelters, although many now house relatively small numbers of families.
The government is attempting to reopen schools while also finding alternative accommodation for displaced residents.
In some locations, schools could resume classes while portions of the buildings continue to accommodate families. In other cases, authorities plan to move displaced people together into separate facilities.
Lebanon’s Education Ministry has also said displaced families in Beirut could be moved into unused buildings.
War has caused major learning disruption
The problem extends far beyond the physical availability of classrooms.
Lebanon’s education system has already endured years of disruption from the country’s economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Beirut port explosion and successive conflicts.
The latest war has added another major setback for children.
Nora Ingdal, Lebanon country director for Save the Children, said there is now an estimated four years of learning loss among some children.
That means a student who should be in sixth grade may be performing academically closer to the level expected of a second grader.
At the height of the conflict, approximately half of Lebanon’s public schools were being used as shelters, disrupting education for more than 250,000 students, according to a report cited by the Associated Press.
The situation has created a difficult trade-off: schools provide essential shelter for displaced families, but using them for housing can prevent children from returning to education.
“We should not respond to a displacement crisis by creating a long-term education crisis,” said Nasser Yassin, a former Lebanese government minister involved in the country’s crisis response.
About 340 schools have been damaged
Even if displaced families can be relocated, another obstacle remains: the condition of Lebanon’s schools.
Education officials say approximately 340 schools were damaged during the war, including about 30 that were destroyed.
Some schools are also inaccessible because they are located in areas affected by Israeli military control.
This means reopening the academic year will not simply involve removing families from school buildings.
Some communities must also find ways to repair damaged facilities or provide alternative classrooms.
Education adviser Georgia Hachem said officials believe they have a solution for every current shelter and that students should have access to a place in school.
However, the lack of funding for repairs remains a major problem.
Online classes are difficult for displaced families
For students whose schools cannot reopen normally, online education has been another option.
But digital learning is particularly difficult for families living in collective shelters.
Internet access can be unreliable, while many families lack enough phones, tablets or computers for their children.
Ingdal pointed to the challenge facing families with several children but only one available device.
For a family with five children, having a single device can make attending online classes extremely difficult.
Humanitarian organizations have established learning spaces for displaced children, but these cannot fully replace stable access to formal education.
Families still don’t know when they can return home
For families in Tyre, the uncertainty is not only about school.
Fatima’s mother, Randa al-Taki, said her family does not know whether they will eventually be able to return to their village or whether the conflict could worsen.
Their home is in Mansouri, and the family is uncertain whether the house is still standing.
She described the conditions inside the school shelter as difficult, particularly because families have little privacy.
The family previously earned money by farming zaatar, while Fatima’s father sold snacks from a tuk-tuk on beaches. The repeated displacement has disrupted both livelihoods.
For Fatima, the loss is simpler but just as profound.
She misses her own bed, her home and the routine of going to school.
The story of children like Fatima illustrates the broader challenge facing Lebanon: reopening classrooms may restore part of the education system, but it cannot immediately restore the lives that existed before the war.
With hundreds of thousands of people still displaced and hundreds of schools damaged, Lebanon’s September 15 school reopening will be an important step — but for many families, a return to normal education remains far away.
