Does MEHE Digital Learning Mean Online Tutoring Is Official?

Parents in Lebanon now hear more official talk of digital platforms, blended lessons, and remote school days. That raises a fair question: does MEHE digital learning mean online tutoring is official?

No. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education is investing in digital tools for schools. It is not endorsing private online tutoring companies, and there is no evidence that its strategy treats commercial tutoring as part of the public system.

What has changed is the setting. Digital instruction is no longer only an emergency substitute. It is one of the methods Lebanese schools, teachers, and students are expected to use when it is appropriate. That matters when a family judges online academic support. It is still not government approval.

Lebanon is building digital learning into the school system

Lebanon’s current direction goes beyond putting textbooks on a website.

MEHE’s Strategic Vision for Educational Renewal 2025–2040 is a longer-term reform agenda. UNICEF has described recovery planning as aligned with that vision and its seven strategic goals. Digital tools appear in that work as part of system resilience, not as a project to replace classrooms with screens. UNICEF’s 2026 education-sector brief.

A separate National Digital Transformation Strategy for education, introduced in 2025, focuses on using technology to improve access, quality, resilience, and learning. UNESCO describes the strategy as learner-centred. Its priorities include teacher digital capacity, digital learning resources, blended-learning approaches, and responsible use of emerging technologies. UNESCO on Lebanon’s digital transformation strategy.

That distinction matters. “Digital transformation” does not mean Lebanon is trying to replace classrooms. Much of the investment is meant to make conventional schooling more effective and more resilient.

The direction is toward a system in which in-person teaching, digital resources, and — when circumstances require it — remote instruction can work together.

Madristi shows what that looks like in practice

One of the clearest examples is Madristi, Lebanon’s national digital learning platform.

Madristi is a localized version of UNICEF’s Learning Passport. Its educational content is aligned with the Lebanese national curriculum, with the Center for Educational Research and Development (CRDP) involved in selecting and adapting material.

During an initial programme in 14 public schools, 2,432 Grade 6 and Grade 7 students and 285 teachers were registered on the platform. Mathematics, science, and languages were among the subjects covered. UNICEF Innocenti — Digital Learning in Lebanon.

This was not an experiment in replacing teachers with online lessons. UNICEF’s evaluation examined how digital learning could be incorporated into in-person classroom teaching. The programme looked at student engagement, teacher readiness, and the practical requirements for expanding digital learning across public schools.

That is closer to blended learning than to a fully online school.

Madristi has since become part of Lebanon’s learning-continuity infrastructure. UNICEF describes it as a national digital learning platform for public-school education, with resources that can be downloaded for offline use and integration with Microsoft Teams for blended and remote learning. UNICEF on Madristi’s continuity role.

The Madristi homepage itself is framed as an e-learning platform for official public education. Madristi. During later school closures, private schools were also told they could use Madristi, Microsoft Teams, and CRDP electronic textbooks. That is access to public tools. It is not a licence for private tutoring companies.

Remote learning is now part of Lebanon’s contingency system

Lebanon’s recent crises made another part of digital education hard to ignore: continuity when students cannot physically reach school.

During COVID-19, MEHE used television lessons, online instruction, and conventional teaching in an attempt to keep education operating.

More recently, remote education has become part of the Ministry’s formal response to conflict-related school closures. In 2026, public guidance for families pointed to Microsoft Teams, Madristi, and CRDP’s electronic textbooks for remote instruction. Content can be downloaded for later offline use. UNHCR Lebanon — remote-learning tools.

UNICEF has also described a continuity model that mixes in-person education where possible, remote learning where the infrastructure exists, and other arrangements when connection is unreliable.

That tells parents something important. Online learning is no longer treated only as an improvised COVID-era solution. Remote and blended instruction are becoming legitimate delivery methods inside the formal education system when they are appropriate and properly supported.

That still does not mean every form of online education is automatically effective.

Digital tools are also being tested in ordinary classrooms

Lebanon’s digital investment extends beyond emergency remote teaching.

UNICEF, MEHE, and CRDP have been testing how technology can improve ordinary classroom instruction. The Madristi proof of concept specifically examined digital learning during face-to-face teaching.

A separate programme introduced applied STEM and digital-skills instruction in public schools, including coding, robotics, and introductory artificial intelligence. UNICEF’s implementation research covered a 16-week pilot in 25 public schools for Grades 6 to 9. UNICEF Innocenti — Developing Applied STEM and Digital Skills in Lebanon.

The Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TLIF) adds another layer. Launched with European Union funding and UNICEF implementation, it supports 34 public schools in developing school-led approaches to improve teaching and learning. Those projects include digital learning alongside literacy, wellbeing, and STEAM education. UNICEF — Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund.

TLIF sits within the wider Transition and Resilience Education Fund (TREF), established in 2022 to support Lebanon’s public education system through a combination of international financing and technical assistance. UNICEF — TREF launch, 2022.

The important point is not that every Lebanese classroom is suddenly digital. It is that technology is increasingly treated as part of teaching practice, learning recovery, and system resilience rather than as a temporary workaround.

Does MEHE digital learning mean online tutoring is official?

No.

That claim would go beyond the available evidence.

MEHE’s digital strategies and programmes focus on the education system: public schools, teachers, curriculum resources, institutional capacity, learning continuity, and access.

The Ministry has not said that families should use private online tutoring companies because Lebanon is digitizing education. Nor should a tutoring provider imply that participation in the same technological trend amounts to government approval of its service.

There is a narrower, more defensible connection. As schools use digital platforms, students and teachers gain more experience learning through screens, accessing curriculum material online, communicating remotely, and combining digital resources with direct instruction.

That makes the distinction between “online” and “real education” increasingly outdated. The relevant question becomes less about where teaching happens and more about how well it is designed. Research on tutoring already points in the same direction: the format is not the main driver. See whether online tutoring is as effective as in-person tutoring.

What parents should look for instead

A video call by itself is not a teaching method. Moving a weak tutoring session onto Zoom or Teams does not make it more effective. The same is true in schools: giving students devices does not automatically improve learning.

Lebanon’s own digital-learning initiatives reflect this. They combine technology with curriculum alignment, teacher preparation, appropriate content, and monitoring. Parents can apply similar criteria when assessing private online tutoring.

First, the tutor should understand the curriculum the student is actually studying. For Lebanese-system students, that means lessons should connect to the relevant grade, subject sequence, and assessment requirements rather than following a generic international programme.

Second, the session should be interactive: questions, worked problems, explanations, feedback, and active student participation.

Third, the tutor should identify the underlying learning gap. Repeating the current chapter may not solve a weakness that started two grades earlier.

Finally, progress should be visible. Parents should know what the student is working on, what difficulty has been identified, and whether the student is becoming more independent.

That is why Mou3alem’s structured tutoring method and progress tracking focus on the teaching process rather than treating the online format itself as the benefit. Parents who want the practical setup can see how online tutoring works.

For parents choosing academic support, the useful standard is not whether the Ministry invested in digital platforms. It is whether the teaching delivered online is structured, curriculum-aligned, and effective. If that process looks like a fit, book an assessment session. The assessment is the starting point. It is not a free trial.