Youth abandon education amid Lebanon crisis

Before Lebanon's devastating financial crisis struck, Faraj Faraj thought university could set him on a path towards financial independence.

Instead, soaring costs forced the 19-year-old to drop out of studying.

"I don't have family who can help me complete my education, and there's no work," he said.

UN research published in January showed that 30 per cent of those aged 15-24 in Lebanon had dropped out of school. More young people are skipping meals and cutting back on health care.

Mr Faraj, his parents, two unemployed brothers and two younger sisters sleep between two rooms in Beirut's Borj Hammoud. The neighbourhood with narrow crowded streets was damaged by a massive explosion in 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic and the port blast deepened what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic collapses since the mid-19th century.

Though an elite earning salaries in dollars still throngs bars in upscale neighbourhoods, poverty has risen to 80 per cent.

"In the past, we could buy things, even though there were difficulties," said Mr Faraj. "Now with the crisis affecting us more, it's just food and drinks."

Mr Faraj is training to become a hairdresser in a programme supported by UN children's agency UNICEF, which aims to help young Lebanese facing soaring unemployment.

"Once a young person drops out of school at the age of 13, 14, 15, it's difficult to get them back, and so they enter into a precarious job market with a serious lack of skills," said Mr Alexandre Schein, head of UNICEF's youth section in Lebanon.

"The implications are that the skills that are required to rebuild Lebanon and get it out of the crisis won't exist in the country."

UN and government data show a drop in spending on education and in school enrolment for children under 15.

The problems are tied to the country's wider political and economic crisis, Education Minister Abbas el-Halabi said. "Lebanese youth are gradually losing faith in continuing to live in Lebanon," he said.