Editor-in-Chief Georges Mghames English Editor Kenneth Mortimer ...

The Ministry of Education signed on 26 January, 2011,
the Decree 147/3/2011 transforming the sport unit of
the Ministry of Education into a national school sport
federation, to be financed by the future school sport
associations, and regrouping eleven sports, football,
futsal, basketball, volleyball, handball, table tennis,
chess, athletics, swimming, badminton and gymnastics.
The Lebanese Olympic Committee elaborated a
strategy for the years 2010 – 2016, with the main goals
of talent-scouting for the 2016 and 2020 Olympics,
submitting files to obtain financial assistance from the
Olympic Solidarity Program, and obtaining sponsorship
from private investors.
All these measures and ideas are pertinent, but
as lecturers and researchers in physical education
and sports, we believe that the most important
measure is to establish physical education and
sports as a compulsory subject in the Lebanese
Baccalaureate Exam.
After the Second World War, France was faced with
an unprecedented sport crisis, lacking equipment
and infrastructure. In the Rome Olympic Games in
1960, France was down at 25th position with no gold
medal for the first time in its Olympic history. This
drew the attention of President General Charles de
Gaulle, who considered sport a national affair. For
him, a country with the historical prestige of France
should be among the top in all sectors, including
sport. He named Maurice Herzog, former Himalayan
alpinist, as High Commissioner of Youth and Sports.
Herzog took decisive measures, creating a long-term
mechanism that was to remain for several decades.
First, he introduced physical education as a compulsory
school subject. Participation was increased by the
vast number of students and schools refurbished their
sports equipment. There was development in the
sciences of physical education, research and elite sport.
The government financed two colleges for coaches
and physical educators, later in 1970 merged into
the renowned INSEP (Institut national du sport et de
l’éducation). So in the last seven Summer Olympics,
Issue 52
1. Fadi el-Khatib, Lebanese
Basketball star.
2. Andrea Paola, Lebanon’s
Taekwando Olympic hope, Bronze
2010 Asian Games.
June 2011
apart from the one in 1984, France has always ranked
among the top ten countries. In the four last Summer
Games, France always won over thirty medals. So the
solution of physical education as a compulsory school
subject was a success.
There are many reasons to believe that Lebanon could
do the same. French influence in Lebanon has been
very strong as the state of Lebanon was declared
under French mandate and protectorate in 1926. The
French education system was general in Lebanon and
popular thanks to its high standards. The students
of many schools can take either the French or the
Lebanese Baccalaureate exam in order to graduate, as
the Lebanese Ministry of Education gives the French
Baccalaureate equivalence with the Lebanese one;
so students with the French Bacc. can enroll in any
university in the country. There is little difficulty, as
most of the Lebanese Baccalaureate subjects (apart
from Arabic and Arabic history and geography) are
given in French.
These similarities do not, however, cover the field of
physical education and sport. If the students of both
programs have almost the same potential to become
proficient in the “classical subjects” (maths, physics,
biology, French and English), only students sitting for
the French Baccalaureate follow a Physical Education
and Sports curriculum. The Lebanese Baccalaureate
does not include a Physical Education and Sports
test, so schools following this program have never
needed to introduce Physical Education and Sports.
This is the major issue affecting sporting culture and
mass participation. The yearly average number of
students passing the French Baccalaureate is about
1,600 as against the 16,000-20,000 students passing
the Lebanese Baccalaureate. So, for every student
following a Physical Education and Sports curriculum,
more than ten others may never have attended a
Physical Education and Sports class or been assessed
in this subject. If the Ministry of Education imposes
Physical Education and Sports, sport will take on a new
importance.
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