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USAID awards $7 million to revamp schools
By Rym Momtaz
Special to The Daily Star
Friday, February 09, 2007

BEIRUT: The United States government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded $7 million to two American organizations based in Lebanon to rehabilitate schools in the public sector throughout the country over the next two years.

In a news conference at the US Embassy in Awkar Thursday, USAID Lebanon mission director Raouf Youssef said that although 90 percent of Lebanese children are in schools, the highest education rate in the Middle East, public schools suffer from insufficient funding.

Allocated under 3 percent of the national budget - a proportion that hasn't changed since 1990 - many public schools lack basic facilities like clean toilets with running water, floor tiling and heating, not to mention necessary educational tools such as science laboratories and funding for extra-curricular activities.

The International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) are expected to work on rehabilitating school infrastructure, providing schools with equipment such as computers and supplies for science laboratories, and developing awareness programs and extracurricular activities in 209 needy public primary, intermediary and secondary schools. The schools were chosen after a visit by officials from the organizations and these awards will benefit more than 80,000 students.

"The aim is to turn schools into catalysts," said regional director of IOCC George Antoun at the conference. To do so both IOCC and CHF will encourage greater parent involvement in their children's schools through the revitalization of Parent-Teacher Associations.

Moreover, this will be complemented by the development of such extracurricular activities as scouts, sports and school clubs which promote civic values, environmental awareness.

USAID, IOCC and CHF will sign a protocol with the Education Ministry next week to ratify the aid agreement enabling both organizations to begin distributing the equipment that have already been bought and opening bidding to contractors for the rehabilitation work.