How the Lebanese school curriculum works: a parent's guide

The structure: from KG to the Baccalaureate

Lebanese schooling moves through kindergarten, then basic education, then the secondary cycle. Basic education is usually grouped into cycles, after which students enter the secondary years that end with the Lebanese Baccalaureate. Two official national exams punctuate this path — one at the end of the intermediate years and one at the end of secondary school.

• Kindergarten — the pre-school years before Grade 1.
• Basic education cycles 1 and 2 — roughly the elementary years, Grades 1 to 6.
• Intermediate cycle — roughly Grades 7 to 9, ending with the Brevet exam.
• Secondary cycle — Grades 10 to 12, ending with the Lebanese Baccalaureate (BAC).

The two official exams: Brevet and BAC

Lebanon has two national exams set by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The Brevet comes at the end of the intermediate cycle, in Grade 9, and marks the move into secondary school. The Lebanese Baccalaureate comes at the end of Grade 12 and is the major exam that closes school and shapes university options. The Brevet tests breadth across core subjects, while the BAC tests deeper, more specialized knowledge within a chosen track.

The BAC tracks explained

In the final secondary year, students specialize into a BAC track, and that choice shapes which subjects carry the most weight in the exam and which university paths open up afterwards. The main tracks are:

• Life Sciences (LS) — heavy on biology, chemistry, math, and physics.
• General Sciences (GS) — math and physics carry the most weight.
• Sociology and Economics (SE) — economics, sociology, and humanities lead.
• Literature and Humanities (LH) — languages, philosophy, and history are the core.

The parallel programs: Lebanese, French, and international

Not every Lebanese school follows the same program, which is a major source of confusion. Many schools teach the Lebanese national program leading to the Lebanese Baccalaureate. Others follow the French program, leading to the French Baccalauréat, or an English-language and international program that can lead toward a high-school diploma and routes like the SAT. Some schools offer more than one of these in parallel. The program your child follows affects the curriculum, the exams they sit, and which teacher will be the right fit.

• Lebanese program — leads to the Lebanese Brevet and Baccalaureate; taught largely in Arabic with French or English.
• French program — follows the French curriculum and leads to the French Baccalauréat.
• English and international programs — English-language curricula that can lead to a high-school diploma and tests like the SAT.

How languages work in Lebanese schools

Lebanese education is famously trilingual. Students learn Arabic alongside a primary foreign language — French or English — and very often pick up the other as a second foreign language. Crucially, subjects like math and science are usually taught in French or English depending on the school, which is why matching a teacher to your child's language of instruction matters so much; the technical vocabulary differs between the two languages.

Where students most often need support

Certain transitions reliably create pressure points. Moving into the intermediate cycle brings harder, more abstract material; the jump into secondary school raises the workload again; and the two exam years — Grade 9 for the Brevet and Grade 12 for the BAC — concentrate the stakes. These are the moments when families most often bring in a teacher, ideally before a gap turns into a crisis rather than after.