Drawing on the success of the Quality Instruction Towards Access and Basic Education Improvement (QITABI) project implemented in 2014-2019, The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded Lebanon $90 million to implement QITABI2, a 5-years program with a main goal to build the Lebanese education system’s institutional capacity for sustainability and self-reliance.

QITABI2 program aims at improving the reading, writing, and social and emotional learning skills of more than 300,000 Lebanese and Syrian refugee girls and boys in public and private primary schools throughout the country.

In close coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD), QITABI 2 addresses three specific outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Improved student performance in reading, math, and writing


• Outcome 2: Improved Social and Emotional Learning


• Outcome 3: Improved national-level service delivery of education

QITABI 2 adapts the Holistic Learning Approach (HLA), a student centered approach for literacy and math that will ensure children in Lebanon will gain quantifiable reading, writing, math, and SEL skills.

QITABI2 is implemented by World Learning leading on English and Math and component 3, in partnership with Ana Aqra Association leading on Arabic, American Lebanese Learning Center (ALLC) leading on French, International Rescue Committee (IRC) leading on component 2/SEL and MSI (Management Systems International) leading on assessment.

As the lead on Arabic, Ana Aqra Association is responsible for the development of Arabic reading/writing instruction material and the relevant training. Ana Aqra manages Akkar, North Lebanon, Baalbeck/Hermel and Beqaa regions where implementation will take place in 489 (1st shift) schools including 173 (2nd shifts).

The "Just Right Start Kit" is an Early Childhood Education kit designed by Ana Aqra team to promote early learning for kids between 3 to 6 years old and thus through playing. The kit is presented in a child friendly and attractive design to offer all the early concepts and learnings in a motivating way. It is a tool designed for the kids, their parents and their teachers to have adapted resources to address all the learning objectives needed for the early years. The covered themes and topics would make the materials a rich resource for more than 1000 words that every learner should know.
The ECE Kit is designed to give preschoolers a head start, develop language and critical thinking skills, encourage social interaction and promote school readiness. The kit provides all the learning tools needed throughout the preschool years to fully prepare learners for school. It helps build a foundation of language development, math skills, motor skills and social and emotional skills. The kit is distributed for 1654 public schools in three languages and for 423 non formal CB-ECE centers all over Lebanon.

Since 2014, multiple programs have been implemented at Ana Aqra’s Community Learning Center in Baalback.  Since 2017, the CLC served around 1297 learners enrolled in the early childhood education program and 695 learners enrolled in the homework support program. In order to respond to the exacerbating disruptions in Education caused by the spread of COVID-19, Ana Aqra ensured the continuity of early childhood education services by using remote learning or e-learning at the Community Learning Center.

The project’s social Change is to:

• Ensure remote early childhood education during economic and health crises for 180 Syrian refugee and host communities.


• Increase awareness on the importance of distance learning and parental engagement in children’s education among parents and teachers of out of school and in school Syrian refugee and host Lebanese communities