Ahliah school
Encyclopedia
The Ahliah school is a private, coeducational school in Beirut
, Lebanon
.
authorities ordered the closing of foreign schools, Mary Kassab gathered in her home sixteen boys and girls who were enrolled at the British School and pledged to ensure their continuing education. Parents began to send their children to her, which became the nucleus of Ahliah School.
The following year, sixty students were enrolled, and Mary Kassab was authorized to open a national, non-denominational and coeducational school.
With the help of her brother Aziz and two of his friends, Boulos Khawli and Anis Makdissi, she formed a board of trustees
. The board raised funds from Lebanese and Arab residents and Lebanese emigrants, and were able to purchase the present campus of Ahliah from the Scottish mission.
The school embraced the new scouting
movement which included all Lebanese children and Alice Abkarios at Ahliah undertook the translation of the scouting rules into Arabic
.
The Mandate
authorities tried to tighten their control over the school and in 1924 they ordered its closing. The students (predominantly girls) organized a rally and walked into the Government Palace
to defend the cause of the school before the High Commissioner. The French authorities repealed the decision.
level only. The second principal, Mrs. Wadad Al Makdissi Cortas, took office in 1935.
A music
academy was started, under the leadership of Alexis Boutros. Ahliah’s choir
represented Lebanon in many capitals of the world, with some one hundred performances on their record.
The Ford Foundation
equipped the school’s science laboratories
as a model.
, Al-Ahliah found itself at the center of battles during the Lebanese Civil War
(1975–1990) and its buildings sustained heavy damage. The demography of the neighborhood changed dramatically, to include the families of the displaced
. Its academic standards also suffered severely because of the departure of many of its faculty and students.
For the first and most violent two years of the war
, al-Ahliah closed. It reopened in 1977, under the leadership of Mr. Nicholas Zayyat, previously a teacher of mathematics
of senior classes at the school.
Throughout the war years, the main concerns of Mr. Zayyat together with other members of the school administration were to guarantee the security of students and to preserve the school’s buildings and infrastructure. Unable to keep former academic standards, Mr. Zayyat was keen on continuing the humanitarian
and patriotic
mission of the school by providing education to the numerous severely disadvantaged students and to children of parents reduced by the war to becoming squatters
in its vicinity, though often these parents were unable to pay full fees. Eventually wartime Al-Ahliah had 750 students enrolled. By this time it had become coeducational.
Despite the dangers and insecurities faced, the idea of moving the school from its historic location was repeatedly rejected by Al-Ahliah’s Board of Trustees.
and a member of its Board of Trustees, was appointed to execute its revival. During Hamadeh’s tenure (1999–2005), Al-Ahliah accomplished the following:
consists of two buildings purchased in 1916 from a Scottish mission. The buildings surround an inner courtyard, which serves as a school gathering place and offers space for sports and other activities. Ahliah’s buildings were fully renovated in 2003-2004.
The main older building houses the administrative offices on the ground floor. The first floor was completely restored and includes the preschool and the resource room. The second floor has two assembly halls, the information technology
lab and the iEARN
conference room.
Ahliah’s second building is a three-winged and three-storied structure equipped with an elevator
. The infirmary and elementary school cafeteria are on the ground floor with the elementary classrooms, the teachers’ lounge and the library
on the first floor. The second floor houses the middle school
classrooms, the photocopy
room, the Art
room and the Science labs. The secondary school classrooms and teachers’ lounges, the technology lab and the dance
hall are located on the third floor. The roof provides additional school-yard space for older students and a cafeteria, servicing secondary school students.
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
.
Mary Kassab School
In 1916, when the OttomanOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
authorities ordered the closing of foreign schools, Mary Kassab gathered in her home sixteen boys and girls who were enrolled at the British School and pledged to ensure their continuing education. Parents began to send their children to her, which became the nucleus of Ahliah School.
The following year, sixty students were enrolled, and Mary Kassab was authorized to open a national, non-denominational and coeducational school.
With the help of her brother Aziz and two of his friends, Boulos Khawli and Anis Makdissi, she formed a board of trustees
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
. The board raised funds from Lebanese and Arab residents and Lebanese emigrants, and were able to purchase the present campus of Ahliah from the Scottish mission.
The school embraced the new scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
movement which included all Lebanese children and Alice Abkarios at Ahliah undertook the translation of the scouting rules into Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
.
The Mandate
French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon
Officially the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate founded after the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire...
authorities tried to tighten their control over the school and in 1924 they ordered its closing. The students (predominantly girls) organized a rally and walked into the Government Palace
Grand Serail
The Grand Serail ; also known as the Government Palace) is the headquarters of the Prime Minister of Lebanon. It is situated atop a hill in downtown Beirut a few blocks away from the Lebanese Parliament....
to defend the cause of the school before the High Commissioner. The French authorities repealed the decision.
Al-Ahliah Girls’ College
In 1950, Mary Kassab School became Ahliah Girls’ College. Boys were admitted at the elementaryElementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
level only. The second principal, Mrs. Wadad Al Makdissi Cortas, took office in 1935.
A music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
academy was started, under the leadership of Alexis Boutros. Ahliah’s choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
represented Lebanon in many capitals of the world, with some one hundred performances on their record.
The Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
equipped the school’s science laboratories
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
as a model.
Al Ahliah School in Beirut
Situated in the heart of old BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Al-Ahliah found itself at the center of battles during the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
(1975–1990) and its buildings sustained heavy damage. The demography of the neighborhood changed dramatically, to include the families of the displaced
Forced migration
Forced migration refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region...
. Its academic standards also suffered severely because of the departure of many of its faculty and students.
For the first and most violent two years of the war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
, al-Ahliah closed. It reopened in 1977, under the leadership of Mr. Nicholas Zayyat, previously a teacher of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
of senior classes at the school.
Throughout the war years, the main concerns of Mr. Zayyat together with other members of the school administration were to guarantee the security of students and to preserve the school’s buildings and infrastructure. Unable to keep former academic standards, Mr. Zayyat was keen on continuing the humanitarian
Humanitarianism
In its most general form, humanitarianism is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept historically but universality is a common element in its evolution...
and patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
mission of the school by providing education to the numerous severely disadvantaged students and to children of parents reduced by the war to becoming squatters
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
in its vicinity, though often these parents were unable to pay full fees. Eventually wartime Al-Ahliah had 750 students enrolled. By this time it had become coeducational.
Despite the dangers and insecurities faced, the idea of moving the school from its historic location was repeatedly rejected by Al-Ahliah’s Board of Trustees.
Post civil war improvements
After the war ended and the country settled back into peaceful times that also witnessed the rebuilding of downtown Beirut, the Board of Trustees of Al- Ahliah began reviving and modernizing its mission. A new principal, Dr. Najla Hamadeh, a graduate of the school’s golden ageGolden Age (metaphor)
A golden age is a period in a field of endeavour when great tasks were accomplished. The term originated from early Greek and Roman poets who used to refer to a time when mankind lived in a better time and was pure .-Golden Age in society:...
and a member of its Board of Trustees, was appointed to execute its revival. During Hamadeh’s tenure (1999–2005), Al-Ahliah accomplished the following:
- changes to the faculty and administration, which led to a considerable improvement in academic standards and services
- founding a renewed preschoolPreschool educationPreschool education is the provision of learning to children before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction....
that employed MontessoriMontessori methodMontessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. Montessori education is practiced in an estimated 20,000 schools worldwide, serving children from birth to eighteen years old.-Overview:...
techniques and equipment - refurbishing the school buildings, in accordance with SolidereSolidereSolidere s.a.l. is a Lebanese joint-stock company in charge of planning and redeveloping Beirut Central District following the conclusion, in 1990, of the country’s devastating civil war...
criteria, together with renovation of science laboratories and preschool facilities - closing down the French languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
section which had been created to satisfy war conditions and needs, in order to focus on building a strong English section, while retaining French as a strong third language - founding an informary, two additional activity halls and a day-care for the infantInfantA newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
s of faculty and staff - developing a center for students with psychologicalPsychologyPsychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and educational needs and for remedial and individual academic support
Campus
The campusCampus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
consists of two buildings purchased in 1916 from a Scottish mission. The buildings surround an inner courtyard, which serves as a school gathering place and offers space for sports and other activities. Ahliah’s buildings were fully renovated in 2003-2004.
The main older building houses the administrative offices on the ground floor. The first floor was completely restored and includes the preschool and the resource room. The second floor has two assembly halls, the information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
lab and the iEARN
IEARN
iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 125 countries. iEARN supports teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies...
conference room.
Ahliah’s second building is a three-winged and three-storied structure equipped with an elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
. The infirmary and elementary school cafeteria are on the ground floor with the elementary classrooms, the teachers’ lounge and the library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
on the first floor. The second floor houses the middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
classrooms, the photocopy
Photocopier
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Most current photocopiers use a technology called xerography, a dry process using heat...
room, the Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
room and the Science labs. The secondary school classrooms and teachers’ lounges, the technology lab and the dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
hall are located on the third floor. The roof provides additional school-yard space for older students and a cafeteria, servicing secondary school students.