Lebanon: A personal journey from professional development to GIS implementation in an english language classroom

Abstract

The system of public education in Lebanon has been a concern of reformers since the conclusion of the Lebanese war (circa 1989). Since 1998, the public schools in Lebanon have followed a national curriculum designed by the National Center of Education, Research and Development (NCERD) under the leadership of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports. The Lebanese system of education is divided into cycles: 3 years of kindergarten (KG) for children above three years; Cycle 1 that includes Grades 1, 2, and 3; Cycle 2 that includes 4, 5, and 6; and Cycle 3 that includes Grades 7, 8, and 9. In Grade 9 (Brevet), students have an official exam in Arabic, English, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, and civics in which they are supposed to get total marks of 140/280, or 50%, in order to get into the secondary level. If the student does not pass the Brevet, he or she can take another test in September, which follows the same testing system and rubrics, but contains different questions. The student can also opt to fail the year and take the test again by the end of the academic year. He or she also has the choice to leave academic education and change to a technical school. At the secondary level of education (Grades 10, 11, and 12), students have the choice to be in the scientific or literary section. Grade 12 has 4 sections: life sciences, general sciences, socioeconomics, and humanities, in which the courses or their level of difficulty might completely differ. At the end of Grade 12, students in both public and private schools must pass an official exam in all the required subjects of their section, which enables them to go to the university. The major they choose should be related to their final year at school (literary or scientific). They then have an entrance exam to the major they choose, and it is then up to the university to select them or not. High marks on the official exams, SAT scores, TOEFL scores, and applications are all taken into consideration. The Lebanese University (Public), however, doesn't require the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or Standardized Administrative Test (SAT).