For Immediate Release
Press Release
Beirut – U.S. Embassy Beirut Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Michaels and the Minister of Education Abbas Halabi formally recognized the Ministry of Education and Higher Education’s adoption of Lebanon’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) framework during an event held at the UNESCO offices in Beirut. The $90 million framework was developed with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Quality Instruction Toward Access and Basic Education Improvement (QITABI 2) program, in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Ministry’s Department d’Observation Pedagogique et Scolaire (DOPS), and the Center for Educational Research and Development, with technical support from New York University and the Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning Lab at Harvard University. The SEL framework was tailored to address the needs of schools, teachers, counselors, parents, and children in Lebanon.
In his remarks, Deputy Chief of Mission Michaels said, “We hope that with this rigorously developed framework, Lebanon will prioritize children’s healthy and holistic learning. It is the combination of academics with traits of empathy, emotional awareness, and flexibility that will enable Lebanon’s children to contribute positively to society as the country’s future leaders.”
Social Emotional Learning is a developmental process that aims to provide learners with competencies in the cognitive, social, and emotional domains. Social and emotional competencies help learners adapt by providing them with the knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and behaviors essential for school and life. The Minister approved the SEL framework in 2021 to provide a unified approach for applying SEL across all schools and at home and enhance children’s wellbeing.
The U.S. Government, through USAID, has continually supported Lebanon’s educational sector by providing quality educational services to all students from various communities and regions, including disadvantaged communities and low-income families. Since 2014, USAID assistance has benefited more than 884 public schools and provided support to train and develop the capacities of more than 14,000 teachers benefitting more than 338,000 public school students.