Massive Uncertainty As War Looms

As a wider Middle-East war threatens to engulf Lebanon, no one really knows what is going to happen from one day to the next. This disturbs our students and their parents and our staff.

This extends to when to open or not open the school and if so in what format, in person, online, or just by emailing work home to be done in isolation. The psychological effects of nightly bombardments in the city of Beirut on our students are tangible. Their lack of sleep contributes to traumatizing them and yet, for the sake of normality, routine and company, they desperately want to be at school, which gives them a focus and provides distraction. For older students they must be at school; they have important examinations later in the year and teaching and learning is their life line. We constantly worry about time lost.

We are setting up a programme of counselling for students, staff and parents, to support them through these anxious times but also to help parents explain to their children the story of war and what it means. We shall have different stories for different age groups.

In practical terms when we open physically there are great dangers  for many children travelling to and from school and, heaven forbid, becoming ‘collateral damage’ of bombing or shelling. The war is all around us and moving around is a dangerous practice.

Parents, afraid of the unknown or what might happen next, are not paying tuition fees. They keep what money they have for emergencies. Paying tuition fees comes bottom of their priorities although having their children educated comes near the top. This, in time, will paralyse the school since without funds we shall be unable to pay the staff, provide educational resources and operate the school, thereby undermining our purpose and raison d’etre to provide education to children which will foster a more peaceful, harmonious world in the future.