Education and citizenship concepts attitudes,skills and actions analysis of servey results of 9th grade students in lebanon

النوع : Report

Given the centrality of education to the process of cultivating well-informed citizens, this project was undertaken with the aim of identifying where the youth of Lebanon are today with respect to notions fundamental to democracy and citizenship, identifying areas of strength and of weaknesses in the current educational environment and address the shortcomings in the educational system. To engage with these issues, this project adopted the Civic and Citizenship Education instrument, which is a survey on education and citizenship. The study indicates that civic knowledge amongst Lebanese students is low compared to their peers in other countries. However, their comprehension of the three main concepts related to citizenship, democracy, good citizen and state responsibilities was relatively high. It also shows strong support by students for the military role of the state as well as strong patriotic and independent sentiments amongst students, which in part may be a reflection of the general political turbulence that Lebanon is undergoing. Moreover, even though student interest in politics seems to be high, their expectations of political participation appear to be limited. This survey also illustrates the extent to which student’s preference for political leaders is guided by their confessional affiliation, reflecting both the nature of Lebanon’s social makeup and its strong political polarization.