Why More Than Half of Lebanese Students Are Falling Behind in Math and Science, According to Recent Data

Recent international data puts a number on a problem many Lebanese parents already recognize.

In PISA 2025, only 31% of 15-year-old students in Lebanon reached at least Level 2 proficiency in mathematics, while 34% reached Level 2 or higher in science. Put differently, about 69% were below the baseline level in mathematics and 66% were below it in science.

Those figures are serious. But they need to be interpreted carefully.

They do not mean that 69% of Lebanese students are failing school, nor that every student has become weaker. PISA measures whether 15-year-olds can apply knowledge to practical problems, not whether they passed the Lebanese curriculum or an official school exam.

The data also does not support a simple explanation such as “students are not studying enough.” Lebanon’s learning problem has developed through years of interrupted schooling, economic crisis, unequal access to learning, public-school disruption, and conflict.

The more useful question for parents is therefore not simply how bad are the scores? It is what do the scores actually show, and what kind of support helps a student catch up?

What PISA 2025 actually found in Lebanon

The Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, is run by the OECD and assesses 15-year-old students’ ability to use what they know in mathematics, science, and reading.

For Lebanon, the 2025 results were:

Subject	Lebanese students reaching Level 2+	Students below Level 2	OECD average reaching Level 2+
Mathematics	31%	69%	65%
Science	34%	66%	74%
Reading	22%	78%	69%

Source: OECD — PISA 2025 Results: Lebanon

This is also an important correction to figures that have circulated under the label “PISA 2022 Lebanon.” Lebanon registered for PISA 2022, but data collection could not be completed during that cycle. The newest official results for Lebanon are from PISA 2025.

The 2025 assessment included 7,382 students in 270 schools, representing about 56,700 15-year-olds, or an estimated 90% of Lebanon’s 15-year-old population. OECD notes that two governorates most affected by the evolving conflict were not covered, although the data were judged fit for reporting.

That caveat matters when interpreting a national headline.

What does “below minimum proficiency” mean?

Level 2 is not the same as a school passing grade.

It is a baseline PISA benchmark for whether students can use subject knowledge in relatively straightforward situations.

In mathematics, a student at Level 2 can recognize how a simple real-world situation can be represented mathematically — for example, comparing the total distance of two routes or converting prices into another currency.

In science, a student at Level 2 can recognize a correct explanation for a familiar scientific phenomenon and, in simple cases, judge whether a conclusion is supported by the data presented.

So when a student scores below Level 2, PISA is not saying that the student “knows no math” or “cannot do science.”

It means the student has not yet demonstrated this baseline level of independent application and reasoning on the assessment.

For parents, that distinction is important. A child may memorize formulas or reproduce a familiar classroom procedure and still struggle when the same concept appears in a new form.

Is the problem getting worse?

The long-term picture is concerning, but it is more complicated than a straight decline.

In PISA 2018, 40% of Lebanese students reached at least Level 2 in mathematics and 38% did so in science. That meant approximately 60% were below Level 2 in mathematics and 62% in science.

Source: OECD — PISA 2018 Lebanon Country Note

By 2025, the proportions reaching Level 2 had fallen to 31% in mathematics and 34% in science.

However, the OECD adds a major qualification. Between 2015 and 2025, a larger share of Lebanon’s 15-year-olds became eligible to participate in PISA because secondary-school enrolment expanded to include more previously marginalized students.

OECD’s analysis says that once this expansion is considered, the apparent long-term deterioration looks substantially different: performance among the more advantaged students who would have been in secondary school under the earlier participation pattern remained close to 2015 levels in mathematics and improved in science.

That does not make the current proficiency levels acceptable.

It does mean we should avoid the simplistic claim that every type of Lebanese student has become dramatically weaker.

The 2025 results show both a learning problem and an inclusion story.

Why are so many students struggling?

PISA tells us what students could do in 2025. It does not, by itself, prove why they performed that way.

For the causes, Lebanon-specific education evidence points to several overlapping disruptions.

Years of lost instructional time

A 2023 World Bank analysis estimated that children in Lebanese public schools received only about 270 days of in-person teaching across the four academic years from 2019-20 through 2022-23, compared with roughly 600 days expected in four normal school years.

The disruptions included the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic and currency crisis, and continued public-school closures and teacher strikes as salaries lost much of their value.

The same World Bank analysis estimated that COVID-related school closures cost students in public and private schools around 1 to 1.2 learning-adjusted years of schooling. Public-school students were then estimated to have lost another 0.4 to 0.5 learning-adjusted years during 2022-23.

These are modelled estimates, not direct PISA measurements, but they show the scale of interrupted instruction.

Source: World Bank — Learning and Earning Losses: Lebanon’s Public-School Closures

Learning loss is broader than math and science

The problem is not limited to STEM subjects.

An Early Grade Reading Assessment cited by the World Bank found that only 2.8% of Grade 2 students assessed in 2022 demonstrated intermediate-or-higher reading comprehension, compared with 11% in 2018.

PISA 2025 tells the same broader story among 15-year-olds: only 22% of Lebanese students reached Level 2 or higher in reading, below even the corresponding shares in mathematics and science.

So the current challenge is better described as a broad learning-proficiency problem, not a math-and-science problem alone.

Public-school disruption and inequality

The disruptions have not affected every student equally.

World Bank analysis notes that public-school students were already behind many private-school students before COVID-19. Remote learning was also more difficult where schools and households lacked reliable infrastructure, devices, connectivity, or other resources.

PISA 2025 still shows a substantial socio-economic gap: advantaged Lebanese students outperformed disadvantaged students by 74 PISA points in science.

That means national averages can hide very different student experiences.

Conflict caused further interruptions

The 2023-2024 conflict created another layer of disruption.

UNICEF reported in April 2024 that more than 70 schools were closed, affecting around 20,000 students, particularly in southern Lebanon.

By the end of 2024, UNICEF reported that education had been disrupted for more than 1.5 million children. The public-school year began late, on 4 November 2024, after many schools had been damaged or used as shelters.

Source: UNICEF Lebanon — 2024 Annual Report

Again, these figures document disruption. They do not allow us to assign a precise number of PISA points to the conflict.

That distinction matters.

What is Lebanon doing about learning recovery?

Lebanon’s response now includes both system-level recovery and more targeted learning interventions.

The Transition and Resilience Education Fund (TREF) was established in 2022 under the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, with UNICEF and international partners, to support public education, teaching and learning, governance, and access.

According to UNICEF’s TREF reporting, recovery initiatives have included:

more than 156,000 children attending summer learning programmes between 2022 and 2024;
more than 23,500 teachers completing at least one learning-recovery module;
millions of national textbooks and learning-recovery materials distributed;
the Call & Learn Tutoring Hotline, which connected more than 142,000 children to personalized tutoring calls;
the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TLIF), supporting 34 public schools to develop school-led approaches in areas including literacy, wellbeing, digital learning, and STEAM.

Sources: UNICEF — Transition and Resilience Education Fund and UNICEF — Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund

These are meaningful investments, but parents should distinguish programme reach from proof that national learning levels have already recovered. Lebanon still needs consistent measurement over time to know how quickly the national gap is closing.

What actually helps a student catch up?

The strongest learning-recovery research does not support simply giving struggling students more of the same work.

It points toward diagnosis, targeting, repetition, and consistent support.

Start with the student’s actual level

The World Bank recommends assessing current learning levels and targeting instruction to what a student is ready to learn next rather than assuming that age or grade alone tells us what the student has mastered.

Lebanon has already tested this principle.

A World Bank-supported Teaching at the Right Level pilot reached 3,686 Grade 3 and 4 students in public schools. The pilot was associated with significant reductions in the share of students performing at beginner levels in Arabic, mathematics, and foreign languages.

Source: World Bank — Teaching at the Right Level: A Promising Educational Approach for Lebanon

The lesson is simple: before adding harder material, identify the missing prerequisite.

A Grade 9 student struggling with algebra may actually need support with fractions, ratios, negative numbers, or equation basics. Moving faster through Grade 9 content without repairing that gap can compound the problem.

Use targeted small-group or individual support

Evidence reviewed by the Education Endowment Foundation finds that small-group tuition can produce, on average, around four months of additional progress over a year, with stronger results when support is targeted to students’ specific needs.

Source: Education Endowment Foundation — Small Group Tuition

Post-pandemic tutoring research also suggests that frequency and consistency matter.

One randomized study of an online tutoring programme for disadvantaged middle-school students found that three hours of individual tutoring per week improved mathematics performance by about 0.20 standard deviations in 2022. That does not mean every online tutoring programme will produce the same result, but it shows that structured online support can improve learning when it is regular and well designed.

Source: Carlana & La Ferrara — Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring, Cognitive Outcomes, and Soft Skills

Measure whether the support is actually working

Effective remediation should create visible progress.

Parents should be able to ask:

What specific skill gap are we working on?
How was that gap identified?
What would improvement look like?
Is the student becoming more independent?
When will progress be checked again?

That is the difference between adding tutoring hours and using tutoring as a structured intervention.

Mou3alem’s Academic Support approach is built around identifying learning needs rather than simply repeating classroom material. For mathematics specifically, parents can also review Math Tutoring and how Progress Tracking can be used to monitor whether support is translating into measurable improvement.

What should Lebanese parents take from the data?

The PISA results should not be used to tell students that they are part of a “failing generation.”

They should be used to recognize that many students are working inside an education system that has experienced extraordinary disruption — and that learning gaps often accumulate quietly.

A student who is behind in mathematics or science does not necessarily need more hours of studying.

They may need:

a clear diagnosis of the missing foundational skills;
instruction pitched at their current level;
consistent practice rather than occasional cramming;
regular feedback and progress checks;
targeted support that gradually builds independence.

The national statistics are serious, but they are not a prediction of any individual child’s future performance.

The useful response to a learning gap is not panic. It is identifying exactly where the gap begins and addressing it systematically.

That is how recovery becomes manageable — one skill at a time.

If a student is stuck on the same math or science gap week after week, start with a diagnosis rather than more of the same homework. Book an assessment to identify the missing prerequisite and set structured support around it.

FAQ

Did Lebanon participate in PISA 2022?

Lebanon registered for PISA 2022, but the OECD reports that data collection could not be completed. The newest official Lebanese PISA results are from 2025.

What percentage of Lebanese students are below minimum proficiency in mathematics?

In PISA 2025, 31% of Lebanese 15-year-olds reached Level 2 or higher in mathematics. That means approximately 69% scored below Level 2.

What percentage are below minimum proficiency in science?

Thirty-four percent reached Level 2 or higher in science, meaning approximately 66% were below Level 2.

Does below Level 2 mean a student failed school?

No. PISA Level 2 is an international benchmark of applied knowledge and reasoning. It is not the same as a Lebanese school passing grade or an official-exam result.

Are math and science the only subjects where Lebanese students are behind?

No. PISA 2025 found even lower baseline proficiency in reading: only 22% of students reached Level 2 or higher. Other Lebanese assessments also show substantial learning gaps in foundational literacy.

Can tutoring close a learning gap?

Research supports targeted tutoring as one useful intervention, particularly when it is frequent, aligned to the student’s needs, and monitored for progress. Tutoring is not automatically effective simply because more hours are added.