Middle East

France pledges €15 million to Lebanese schools crippled by crisis

Issued on: 24/07/2020 – 16:16

France's visiting foreign minister on Friday pledged €15 million ($17 million) in aid to Lebanon's schools, which have been hit hard by the country's economic meltdown.

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France will not abandon Lebanese youth, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters as he visited a school in Mechref, south of Beirut, on the third and final day of his trip to Lebanon.

The French financial assistance will go to a network of over 50 French and Francophone schools in the country.

The announcement comes a day after Le Drian scolded Lebanon's leadership for failing to take the measures he said are necessary to save the country from collapse.

>> 'Help us to help you', French Foreign Minister Le Drian tells Lebanon

Lebanon's education sector has been hit hard by the crisis, with schools forced to let teachers and administrators go and many facing the risk of closure. Parents, struggling to pay private school fees, are increasingly enrolling their children in already overcrowded public schools.

'On the verge of the abyss'

The economic crisis has impacted almost all facets of life in Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country long considered a middle-income state. Since last year, unemployment has risen and poverty deepened, as foreign currency dried up and the local currency tumbled to lose more than 80 percent of its value against the dollar.

>> Lebanons neo-liberal wheels sped to a dream future, but the past applies the brakes

Le Drian, who arrived here late Wednesday, said France could only help Lebanon face the crisis if Lebanese officials do their part, urging them to introduce much-needed reforms.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwGCxhSykE4?feature=oembed&w=480&h=270]

Le Drian is the first senior Western official to visit the struggling country. In stern public messages, he urged Lebanese officials to go through with an audit of the country's central bank, reform a bloated and highly indebted electricity sector, and maintain an independent judiciary.

France is the former colonial power in Lebanon and has previously organised conferences that pledged assistance to Lebanon but demanded reforms to the public sector and governance.

“Lebanon is on the verge of the abyss. But there are ways on the table to fix this,” he said Friday during a visit to a school in Mechref district.

IMF or bust

During the visit, Le Drian said Lebanon is on France's list of priority countries for humanitarian assistance, adding that his country already donated €50 million ($58 million), primarily to the healthcare sector to deal with the Read More – Source

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