Our very own Amir Hijazi, project manager at Teach For Lebanon, is participating in the Manhajna workshop series. Manhajna is a joint venture by the Centre for Lebanese Studies (CLS) and Learning Land (which was launched and is headed by a TFL alumni, Fahd Jamaleddine) aimed at educational reform in Lebanon. The workshop series brings students, educational workers, representatives from the government (MEHE, CERD), and representatives from international agencies, to work together on mapping out and implementing reforms to the Lebanese curriculum. 

The series is broken up into four different sessions, each of which take place simultaneously in different regions of Lebanon (notably, TFL alumni Abbas Mhanna is the community champion leading the whole event in the South Governorate). The latest session took place on August 14th; individuals from diverse professional backgrounds formed focus groups in order to discuss the following points: 

• Previous attempts at updating the Lebanese curriculum – what was done and what were the results? 

• Assessing the current Lebanese curriculum using a SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. 

• Identifying necessary features of an educational curriculum and envisioning an educational development track from childhood to adulthood.

• Developing a modified and up to date Lebanese curriculum.

We’re happy and proud of Amir’s participation in this important initiative, and we can’t wait to report on the next session. Stay tuned!