(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A collaboration between the Byblos International Center for Human Sciences and the Lebanese Education Ministry was organized on Friday to create clubs in public schools that advocate national patriotism and human rights.
Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bou Saab has agreed to collaborate on the project, which will offer these clubs for eight grade public school students. The program will only be offered to schools chosen by the Directorate General of Higher Education, which released a statement on behalf of the Education Ministry this week.
“This is a leading and one-of-a-kind step in Lebanon,” read the statement.
This project, explained the center’s Director Adonis Akra, is part of an agreement signed in June this year between the organization and the Arab Institute for Human Rights in Tunisia.
The clubs “aim at introducing and informing students about the principles of patriotism, human rights and public life essentials,” said Akra in the statement. The $120,000-a-year project is similar to initiatives launched in Tunisia in 2012.