Ресурсы

Educational programs and the question of the unification of history textbooks constitute a major problem which has been ongoing for several decades. It remains till today a hindrance on the way to unifying the Lebanese in terms of their political, cultural, historical and national perspectives.

This has a negative impact not only on their present, but also on their future. Educational and cultural considerations, including the multiplicity and variety of history books and the differences and discrepancies in their content, are among the major causes for the division of the Lebanese, whether under the French mandate or since the independence years preceding the breakout of the Lebanese war in 1975 as well as in post-war years. In spite of the fact that the Taef Acord noted the importance of establishing a unified history textbook in the Lebanon, all attempts by all the ministers of national education between 1990 and 2011 failed in producing a unified history textbook satisfying all the Lebanese factions.

The author presents in this paper his experience on the committees for the “unification of the history textbook”, and offers several suggestions for addressing the problems of education, including that of the history textbook. These include: 1) Reeducating Lebanese students to make them attuned to national concerns, as they constitute a valuable national and developmental resource. 2) Revising educational programs and curricula away from partisanship, sectarianism and confessionalism. 3) Preparing teachers professionally, nationally and educationally. 4) Appointing nationally minded personnel to write the history books and unify them. 5) Reintegrating the teaching staff in schools and universities to replace the current sorting by sect, confession, region, politics and partisanship, all of which works to the detriment of education and teaching. 6) Supervising the media whose programs have a negative impact by contributing to the division of the Lebanese as unifying the history textbook without putting constraints on the media will not lead to the unification of the Lebanese.