The high-level REC was called for by the Minister of Education to discuss issues pertaining to both RACE II and Agenda 2030.
Here are several key announcements and developments produced:
- The meeting was attended by the Minister, DG, Head of PMU and CERD president. In addition, many new donors attended including Kuwait.
- A very detailed RACE II factsheet has been shared, which is by far the most detailed version MEHE has ever shared. The disaggregation of data for formal secondary enrollment, and acknowledgement of KFAS as our donor are appreciated by UNESCO. In addition, for the first time ever MEHE shared drop-out and completion rates.
- In terms of secondary enrollment, 4,793 non-Lebanese students have enrolled in public secondary school this academic year, an increase of 20% from last year, which is positive. As for the Lebanese enrollment in secondary, 57,732 are enrolled in public secondary schools.
- The Minister took the opportunity to announce that he had presented to Parliament a new law to make secondary school free of charge, and to allocate around 26 million USD of the national budget to make this happen. This is a huge policy shift, and one that would help incentivize youth to complete 12 years of education.
- The DG also presented to the donor’s group MEHE’s efforts for SDG4, as well as what MEHE’s tentative plans were, and what some of the main challenges are. In addition, he mentioned that MEHE is considering developing two sector plans to start after the end of RACE II, the first going from 2021-2025 and the second from 2025-2030. The Minister also highlighted the need to think beyond RACE II and to build up on the efforts MEHE previously started with the sector strategy that expired in 2010.
Please find the RACE II factsheet here: http://education2030-arab-states.org/PDF/8bcd1ee0-ab0c-42c8-bd37-9c04c23f9829_RACE-PMUFactSheetNovember2018-compressed.pdf
