Curricular innovation in Lebanon : an uneasy experience

Abstract

During the 20th century, Lebanon experienced three types of educational systems: the Ottoman (till 1918), the French (till 1946), and the national one. During the Ottoman period (1516-1918), Lebanon had a relatively liberal educational system where Ottoman, Western missionary, and national schools were operating side by side. Thus, no central curriculum was implemented at that time. Rather, the Ottoman schools were teaching subjects in Turkish as well as Arabic, and their function hardly went beyond the literacy level. The missionary schools, which started to function in the 17th century, had a variety of curricula according to each mission's home of origin, while the local schools were mainly associated with a church or a mosque. Here the curriculum consisted of religious instruction and basic literacy. By the mid-18th century, schooling in Lebanon had taken a good step forward, with the missionaries enhancing the level and functions of their schools, and the local communities, especially the Maronites, following them. At the synod of Luwayza, held in 1736, the church recommended the establishment of tuition-free schools for male children (Salibi, 1965). The curriculum included reading and writing in Syriac and Arabic, grammar and syntax, music, and the church calendar. Successful students were promoted to study rhetoric, prosody, philosophy, arithmetic, surveying, astronomy, and other mathematical subjects. Textbooks were to be prepared in Syriac or Arabic by translating them from Latin by the graduates of the Maronite college in Rome, which had been established in 1584 (Salibi, 1965). The 19th century witnessed considerable progress in education, particularly with the opening of the American University of Beirut (A.U.B) and Saint Joseph University. The impact of higher education was evident in pre-university schooling where the number of schools increased and their educational performance improved. When we study some aspects of Lebanon' s educational system in the 20th century, we have to first focus on the impact of the French, and particularly on the influence ofthe French Mandate between 1920 and 1943. According to the terms of the Mandate, France was to bear the responsibility of developing public education. Between 1918 and 1923, the French did not introduce any new curricula, but simply abolished the Turkish language in the schools which taught it. Starting in 1923, the Haut Commissariat published an educational periodical, Le Bulletin de l'Enseignement, which contained the legislation, curricula, examination rules, teacher education materials, and statistics needed to put the new system into place. The French Mandate played an influential role in shaping Lebanon's education and patterned schooling after its own system. At the same time the French developed a curriculum for Lebanese schools similar, to a certain extent, to that of France (Fray ha, 1985). When Lebanon gained its independence, its government was faced with an urgent task: unifying the co-existing religious communities into a nation. It considered education as the best means to achieve this goal. A new curriculum was developed in 1946 making Arabic the language of instruction in most subjects and giving students the option of either French or English as a second language. The structure of this curriculum fitted the general rules for curriculum development, spelling out all the necessary elements such as rationale, aims, objectives, purposes, clear content, and evaluation. However, secondary education was designed to prepare a gifted group of the nation's young people to carry the major responsibilities of civil service and to specialize in the professional branches of higher education (Ministry of Education, 1946). This clearly violated the principle of equal opportunity for all students, especially when we know that only students who were good in a foreign language were able to make it through the secondary level and pass the official examination. This curriculum was revised in three phases between 1968 and 1971 when the government consecutively introduced the secondary curriculum in 1968, the intermediate curriculum in 1970, and the elementary one in 1971. These curricula failed to include aims and objectives for most subject matters or provide models for teaching methods. In general, they can be described as a step backward in Lebanon's educational system, when compared with those of 1946. Directly after the civil war, more than one attempt was made to revise the latest curricula. These however failed, given that there was no political support sustaining these efforts. In 1989, the Lebanese deputies who met in al-Taef, Saudi Arabia, came up with what is called the al-Taef Charter, which recommended that 'the curricula shall be reviewed and developed in a manner that strengthens national affiliation, unity, spiritual and cultural openness, and unification of history and civics textbooks.' One of the articles of this charter, which also came to be known as the National Reconciliation Accord, specifically emphasized the necessity of revising the curricula. After the approval of the National Accord by the elected parliament in 1992, the pressing issue of the state of national education was seriously considered. Thus, in 1994 the Lebanese government approved the' Plan for Educational Reform' which included the main outlines of the educational policy in post-war Lebanon. This was followed by the 'New Framework for Education in Lebanon' which called for changes at four levels of schooling, i.e. kindergarten, elementary, intermediate and secondary. These changes included the increase of the elementary stage to six years instead of five, divided into two cycles of three years each. Consequently, this decreased the intermediate level to three years instead of four but kept the official examination at the end of the third year or Grade 9. Regarding the secondary level, the span of time remained three years (Grades 10, 11 and 12, which are equivalent to the pt, 2nd and 3rd Secondary), but merged the first year which, under the old structure, had been divided into a literary and scientific branch. Under the new system, the second secondary (Grade 11) is divided into two routes, namely Sciences and Humanities, while the third secondary, which had included three kinds of Baccalaureates, has been restructured to have four, namely Literature and Humanities, Sociology and Economics, Life Sciences, and General Sciences (Ministry of Education-ECRD, 1995). The New Framework introduced new subjects to the curriculum. These included: - A second foreign language from Grade 7 to Grade 12, i.e. French for Anglophone schools and English for the Francophone ones.Computer or Informatics from Grade 7 to Grade 12. - Technology from Grade 4 to Grade 12. It is provided in the first cycle through fine arts subjects. - Sociology and Economics at the secondary level. - 'Scientific Education' (including Environment and Health Education, Technology and Physics) at the second and third secondary of the Humanities branch. - Philosophy and Civilizations at the second and third secondary. This Framework also revived other subjects which were included in the old curriculum but dropped from the school schedule. Those subjects are: Fine Arts, Physical Education and Civics. It is also worth mentioning that religious education was removed from the curriculum. Thus, the 'Plan for Educational Reform' and the 'New Framework for Education in Lebanon' established the principles and guidelines for the new curricula which formed the third step in the process of educational reform in Lebanon.