An institutional history of the physical education in the Lebanon

Abstract

With its wide range of communities, Lebanon is at the core of intertwined civilizations and cultures. Geopolitically, it is a fairly recent entity in the history of the Mediterranean. It was born in 1920 with the French protectorate. Physical education, as the whole educational system, has always reflected the fragility and tensions of the political and religious framework. Physical education has been a part of the curriculum since December 1st 1924 (Resolution No. 2852) with an exclusively hygienic issue which is a common measure applied to all countries of the French empire. The latest P.E. curriculum in force dates back to May 8th 1997 (Decree n° 10227). In this decree, sports are considered as the main object of physical education teaching. However, teaching is an act subservient to religious, political, social and economic factors. With almost a century of institutional existence, the Lebanese physical education is still struggling to forge a real identity and gain a place in the scholar system. In this paper we aim at examining the establishment and the development of physical education in Lebanon throughout the twentieth century by showing the gap between the political choices at a national level on the one hand and the deep-rooted regional problems on the other.