Education Report - Why Most Lebanese History Books End at 1943

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15-year	2005	An	From	Lebanese	Lebanon	Over	She	Special	Sunnis
about	and	arguments	civic	different	duty	fallen	for	in	it
on	religious	the	their	to	was

VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report in EnglishLebanon is a nation of many religious groups. Shiites', , Druze, Maronite and Coptic Christians, Jews and others share land. But often there is tension, and sometimes violence. the years, the differences between the groups have made hard for educators to write a unified national history. agreement in 1989, called the Taif Accord ended the Lebanese civil war. The agreement called for the same education to be taught across the country. The goal to increase national unity. But the effort to agree one national history has failed. Most history textbooks in stop in 1943, the year of Lebanese independence. The of teaching children about their country's recent history has mainly on parents. That can increase divisions among the groups. The Green Space School is an elementary school Beirut. It is on the edge of Christian, Druze Shiite neighborhoods. The school's head, Maha Kassem, says these ties can make history lessons a source of disagreement. says some lessons have to be changed to avoid among the students. Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon in after a 29-year occupation. A series of protests against occupation led to the withdrawal. The protests were called "Cedar Revolution." But Lebanese school children may never read the protests in school. A government committee recently decided remove the words "Cedar Revolution" from the education plan a national middle school history textbook. So without agreement, schools often choose textbooks based on the religion or students. For VOA Learning English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.

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