This article examines the status of school counseling in Lebanon. An overview that points out some weakness in the educational system, such as high dropout and repetition rates, is presented. Calls for counseling have been voiced partly because of the psychological consequences of social change, such as political instability in Lebanon. A sample of school counselors in public and private schools were surveyed. Private school counselors reported fewer stressors and more rewards than did their counterparts in public schools.

Preschool education may help increase the academic achievement of school-age students. Still, for a segment in society, this is not feasible and children are not admitted into preschool due to parents’ socioeconomic status. The purpose of this study was to measure the interaction between socioeconomic status and preschool education on students’ academic achievement in Bahraini government elementary schools. The study adopted a quantitive approach. The sample was 402 girls and boys in grades 1 through 6. The results showed that students who had preschool education had better academic achievement than those who did not. There were no significant differences in students’ later academic achievement with reference to socioeconomic status, and there was no interaction between preschool education and socioeconomic status on academic achievement. It was recommended that policymakers should encourage the private and public sectors to invest in preschool education, to conduct further research on the impact of socio-economic status on academic achievement at different school levels and to expand the dimensions of SES to include parents’ skills and marital relationships and their impact on children’s achievement.

The Suinn Test Anxiety Behavior Scale (STABS) (Suinn, 1969) was administered to 192 Lebanese high school students. Scores were correlated with their semester grades in selected courses. Although two coefficients reached the level of statistical significance, a relatively small amount of the variance was explained. It was indicated that the emphasis which the Lebanese business and educational communities have placed on academic achievement warrants continued research in this direction.