Back to school challenges many Lebanese parents with inflated prices, fuel shortages

Lebanese father of three, Omar Mansour, walks his youngest daughter to school as he can't afford school bus fees and has no fuel to drive her.

 

"I can't even find a shared taxi," he said, referring to a once-popular means of transportation in Lebanon that has become rare with the country's financial crisis and fuel shortage. 

 

It's back-to-school season in Lebanon and students are going back to class after nation-wide protests in 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 interrupted their studies or saw many switching to online learning.

 

But the country's many crises are challenging Mansour and many parents like him, making it harder on them to enjoy the start of the academic year. 

 

"I have my car's fuel tank half full, I am driving him (referring to her son) to school, once my car is empty from fuel, my son will stay home," said Lebanese teacher Lamia Taleb.

 

Taleb, speaking as she waited outside her son's school with other parents, echoed the difficulties in affording school bus and tuition fees as prices increased but most salaries have not.

 

Corruption and political wrangling have cost the local currency more than 90% of its value in less than two years, propelling half the population into poverty.

 

Lebanon's educational sector,prized throughout the Middle East as a regional leader, was once ranked tenth globally by the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report. But many teachers have now fled the country as its financial crisis built.