The Plight of the Rightless: Mapping and Understanding Statelessness in Tripoli-V1.3 education. The reason behind the much lower percentage of school enrolment in secondary education for the stateless persons (4%) compared to the non-stateless (12%) is that at grade 9, students have to sit for Brevet examination,56 which requires them to show their IDs before taking exams. This is thus problematic for stateless students wishing to undergo such examination. However, more recently in 2014, the Ministry of Education publicly announced the right of stateless children to equally sit for official exams and complete this educational stage.57 The latter still have to secure a written approval from the Ministry and show it as supporting document during official examination in addition to the Mukhtar Ta’arif card. Unfortunately, many families and even Mukhtars are not aware of this approval and thus assume that stateless students will be stuck right at the end of primary education and won’t be able to complete school. 58 This contributes to stateless children’s school dropout, often right before grade 9. Moreover, of the stateless who have not reached secondary education, 43% declared that the main reason behind their dropout is the lack of ID. Another 43% declared other reasons such as getting married at early stages, having to work and provide for the family, or parents conviction that girls should not go to school. Ten percent left school due to financial reasons, and the remaining 4% dropped out because they could not foresee any benefits of education for stateless people. The latter reason was concurred by one of the interviewed Mukhtars as he explained that since stateless persons are not legally allowed to work in the formal market and generally face less work opportunities than others, many families think that education is useless for them as employers will not hire them anyway.59 Statelessness, in one way or another, is forcing children out of school at earlier stages despite having all the rights for continued schooling, as recently stipulated by the Ministry of Education. 56 Brevet examination is an official exam organized by the Government at grade 9, as well as grade 12 in the Lebanese education system. In most cases, schools are in charge of booking the official examination seat for students. 57 The Government of Lebanon, Ministry of Education & Higher Education, Ta’amim Rakem 4, Beirut, 2013. http://www.cpf.edu.lb/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/documents_exam_lib.pdf. (Accessed March 03, 2019). 58 Based on interviews with 28 Mukhtars all around Tripoli. 59 Interviewed Mukhtar in Tebbeneh-Jabal Mohsen. 41