The Ottoman Historical Society and senior members of a national history committee have challenged a government decree merging history with geography, sociology and other subjects in pre-university education.
The Ottoman Historical Society, represented by Dr Joseph Abu Nahra, and members of the Higher History Committee filed the suit against the Lebanese state over Decree 3445, issued by the government to govern the new Lebanese pre-university curriculum.
The plaintiffs argue that since 1946, Lebanese education decrees have treated history as a standalone subject with designated weekly classroom hours. Decree 3445 integrates history with geography, sociology, economics and management across three educational tiers.
The Taif Agreement, which the plaintiffs describe as a national charter superseding the constitution, explicitly called for history and civic education to receive special attention as independent subjects, not merged with others.
A national framework for the new curricula, announced from the Grand Serail on 15 January 2022 and endorsed by the education ministry and most educational institutions, emphasised integration of history subjects rather than merging history into other disciplines, the suit states.
One of the authors of the curriculum framework's history section, Dr Antoine Messara, published an article objecting to the merging carried out by the Educational Center, according to the complaint.
The decree makes history non-mandatory for certain fields in eleventh grade and removes it entirely from some fields in twelfth grade. The plaintiffs contend this contradicts the Taif Agreement's requirement that history education be mandatory to strengthen national unity among Lebanese.
The decree specifies optional implementation in the 2026-27 school year and mandatory implementation from 2027-28, but contains no detailed curriculum content, unlike previous education decrees.
The plaintiffs claim the Educational Center appointed a Higher History Committee to review and oversee the new history curriculum, and that this committee submitted written memoranda opposing the merger and calling for at least two classroom hours per week, mandatory status across all grades, and higher grade weightings. The center's management subsequently refused written discussion with the committee and bypassed it in submitting the new curricula to the cabinet, the suit alleges.
The plaintiffs seek to halt implementation of Decree 3445 and to revise it so that history becomes an independent, mandatory subject across all grades.
They argue that the new humanities curriculum is modelled on Canadian curricula, adapted for a country that receives immigrants and lacks the historical foundations Lebanon has to teach its students.
