Madristi — Lebanon's AI-Curated National Learning Platform Reaches 400,000 Students

Lebanon's public education system has faced years of compounded strain from economic collapse, currency devaluation and repeated disruptions to schooling. In response, UNICEF and Lebanon's Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), working with the Centre for Educational Research and Development (CRDP), localized UNICEF's global Learning Passport platform as Madristi: a free, comprehensive learning platform aligned with the Lebanese curriculum from KG to Grade 12.

Delivered with support from Microsoft and the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC), Madristi uses AI to help curate and adapt curriculum-aligned digital content for learners of different abilities and needs. UNICEF reports that an estimated 400,000 students enrolled in the public system and 50,000 teachers can now access the platform. To reach schools with no or low internet bandwidth, offline Madristi servers are being deployed in around 200 public schools, and the platform has been zero-rated by agreement with the Ministry of Telecommunications so that students can use it without incurring mobile data charges.

Alongside the platform rollout, UNICEF and CERD ran a national teacher capacity-building effort — webinars on Microsoft Teams, virtual classrooms, flipped learning, safe learning in emergencies and platform navigation — reaching and supporting around 10,000 teachers.

Independent reporting on the pilot phase notes that weak internet connectivity in parts of the country remained the main obstacle to full uptake, and no independent, peer-reviewed evaluation of learning-outcome impact has been published; the evidence available is reach and process data self-reported by the implementing partners rather than a controlled measurement of learning gains.

Read the full analysis: https://lebanon.un.org/en/288093-international-day-education-unicef-strengthens-its-commitment-children%E2%80%99s-right-education