Lebanese youths abandon education as crisis bites

Students walk at the entrance of a public school in Beirut, Lebanon February 23, 2022. Picture taken February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Before Lebanon's devastating financial crisis struck, Faraj Faraj thought university could set him on a path out of a cramped family home in a poor area of Beirut and towards financial independence.

Instead, like increasing numbers of Lebanon's young people, soaring costs forced the 19-year-old to drop out of studying just over a year ago, before he had finished secondary school.