The ongoing conflict in Syria has diminished the educational process and threatened its continuity and the future of an entire generation. Statistics from the Syria Response Coordinators team estimated that 2.3 million children are out of school, and 891 schools have been destroyed in the northwest as a result of repeated attacks by the Syrian and Russian regimes.
The figures also indicate that 66 percent of the camps in Syria do not have schools, and that nearly 50 percent of schools have been cut off from funding, as they rely on international support for teachers’ salaries and expenses.
Hussein Ali, a 51-year-old retired employee of the Ministry of Education in Damascus, told Daraj that “More than half of the teachers have emigrated or left teaching as a result of security or living conditions.” He believes that ”the solutions adopted have caused more issues by relying on short-term and unsustainable plans, and have led to the loss of guaranteed results with long-term sustainability.”
“More than a decade after the Syrian crisis and the political and military conflict, the Kurdish language is still subject to political tensions and calculations; the role and effectiveness of international and local civil organizations is almost completely absent, and the role of international and regional donors in the issue of education is clearly weak, all of which carries serious consequences,” concludes Hussein Ali.
Education in the Kurdish Regions is a Ticking Time Bomb
With different authorities, powers, and loyalties at play, Syria has found itself as a home for several pedagogical curriculums. In the Kurdish region, there are two curricula and three methods of educational attainment. The first is the Syrian regime’s curriculum, which is limited to private schools in Qamishli, Hasakah and Dirk, which number more than 30 schools, and 125 public schools that taught the Syrian regime’s curriculum, spread in Arab villages that were loyal to the regime or in security squares, where the teaching of the Kurdish language was absolutely forbidden.
According to educational sources from both sides, in areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration, there are 115 schools throughout Hasakah governorate. The curricula are taught in three languages, Arabic, which has little demand, Syriac, which is almost non-existent, and Kurdish, which is a good percentage, but it is absolutely less than the number of Kurdish students in public schools.
Daraj met with teacher Shirin Abdi, 38, who attributed the reasons for the Kurds’ preference for the regime’s curriculum over the Autonomous Administration’s curriculum to “the lack of official recognition from any party, the poor performance of teachers, especially the first batches of those enrolled in them, and the clear references to political and partisan indoctrination within them.”
Shukri Ibrahim, a teacher specializing in private courses, explains that “the political conflict over education, the repeated closure of schools and the security situation have created a third party to education, which is formal education in an informal way, i.e. through private courses at home, and only taking exams, whether certificate or transitional stage, which has led to poor concentration and lack of adaptation in the student, as well as loss of cohesion and social dialogue among students.”
We headed to the south of Qamishli, where the biggest dilemma currently lies, as the city has seen nothing but Baathist and Syrian regime curricula. “The lack of political consensus between the administration in Damascus and the Autonomous Administration will lead to a real disaster, as education continues for all transitional grades, and if we move to the curriculum of the Autonomous Administration, even in Arabic, we will face technical and educational issues, especially in this year, the first half of which is over,” said Riad al-Zaher, 28, a master’s degree student in education.
Al-Zaher offers some suggested solutions: “The Kurdish language must become a language in schools, and the curricula must be unified at the level of Syria, in terms of content, methods, mechanisms, and educational decision-making, and there is no issue if it is in more than one language.”
Afrin: Turkification of the curriculum and dilution of the Kurdish language
In 2023, the Syrians for Truth and Justice Center (STJ) published a research paper on education in Afrin, explaining that after opposition factions and the Turkish army took control of the Afrin region in Operation Olive Branch in March 2018, the Syrian Interim Government of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces imposed curricula issued by the Ministry of Education in the Syrian Interim Government, and allocated four quotas for the Turkish language and one for Kurdish.
The paper also discusses how the Kurdish language has been reduced to only two periods and sometimes to one per week, and has been completely canceled in some schools, under the pretext that there are no cadres to teach it. The Turkish language was imposed on Syrian Kurds and displaced Syrian Arabs who came to the region from other Syrian regions, and started talking in Turkish language books about Turkish nationalist symbols and figures and religious figures that are alien to the Syrian societal environment.
Regarding the reality of the Kurdish language and education in Afrin, the research concluded that Kurdish is considered a secondary language in the educational curricula after Arabic, Turkish and English in terms of the number of classes, and it is treated as a subject that does not affect the overall grade point average, because it is considered an optional language in the preparatory and secondary certificate exams. The interesting paradox is the superiority of the Turkish language (within the territory of the Syrian state) in terms of importance, number of classes, quality of teachers, as well as scientific status and importance in educational attainment, over Kurdish, the language of the indigenous population.
Speaking to Daraj, Zuhair Hanan, a resident of the village of Rajo, said: “The scientific subjects are the same as the ones taught by the regime, and this is normal. Assad did not invent math or physics, while philosophy classes were neglected and reduced, and religious education–Sharia and Sunnah classes– were increased.”
Hanan concludes: “Most of the decisions issued are related to the Turkish model of education, and the high school diploma issued by schools in Afrin has been recognized, and its holder can complete his university education in Turkey.”
Idlib and the Salvation Government
The Salvation Government, established by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham as a civilian arm to manage the affairs of Idlib and the countryside of Aleppo and Latakia adjacent to Idlib, resorted to an implicit agreement between it and the Syrian Interim Government, so that the entire educational process in the areas of the Salvation Government is affiliated with the Syrian Interim Government in front of international donors and supporters.
The reason is Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s inclusion on terrorism lists and the refusal of donors to deal with it, while the educational file was implicitly managed by the two governments (Salvation and Interim), whether in terms of choosing educational officials in the areas of overlap between them, or agreeing on what to delete from the curriculum.
In addition, the certificates of secondary and preparatory school students were stamped with the seal of the interim government, which is recognized by a number of European countries. According to Ali Abdulmajid, a researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, communicating with Daraj via Whatsapp, “The curriculum was not changed, but everything that symbolizes the Syrian regime, Assad and Baath was removed in the areas controlled by the Salvation and the interim government, which was agreed upon by both parties, and the socialist nationalism course was completely deleted, as it is only a glorification book for Assad and the regime.”
A Pedagogical Conflict Between the Two Governments
A source confirmed to Daraj that “the reasons for the disputes are not educational or educational and not related to the future of the student, but rather the dismissal of educational directors who were appointed by consensus between the two parties.” He pointed out that “the Interim Government believes that the Salvation Government is alone in the issue of deletions from education, whether by restoring some of them or by deleting others without returning to the other party.” He pointed out that “there is also a desire by the Salvation Government to disassociate itself from the Interim Government and support the University of Idlib.” and support the University of Idlib, based on the fact that more than 75 percent of the students are in its areas of influence, and the preference of students to take exams with it, or with the education directorates of the Turkish-backed local councils, as the exams are easier compared to those of the Syrian Interim Government, which derives its strength from the fact that international recognition is for the certificates issued by it, and that donors recognize and coordinate with it.”
This conflict and assessment of the balance of power in the educational process took place before Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham arrived in Damascus and took control of Syria.
Syrian Regime Curricula
The Syrian regime has continued to invest in education and curricula, whether by forcing teaching and administrative staff and students to march in support marches, abolishing the components of Syrian society, or focusing on “Baathification” and Arabization of curricula.
Daraj met with Samir Aita, 67, a resident of rural Hasakah, who said: “I served in education for 32 years, and I never felt a sense of belonging, the Baath was perched on our chests, and education, like the army, was the regime’s broad red line that could not be touched.”
Currently, the educational process is at a standstill with promises to relaunch in all provinces and promises to distribute salaries in the coming days.A source close to the Ministry of Education in the Syrian caretaker government said, “Our efforts are currently focused on the return of students to schools and the distribution of salaries, and regarding the deletions that have occurred, they are routine and target everything related to the regime.”
The deletions from the former Syrian regime’s curriculum have sparked strong reactions, especially in light of contradictory statements from the interim government. Farah Bashar, an Arabic language teacher from Damascus, believes that “the most important thing is infrastructure, textbooks, salaries, stability, reconstruction of destroyed schools, how to create harmony between opposition and loyalist students, how to integrate students returning from displacement, not deleting material about Zenobia or Khawla bint al-Azour.”
Academic Solutions
In an educational session, Daraj met a group of educational instructors at the Qamishli Educational Complex, who emphasized that “solutions must be gradual and radical, not patchwork, as it cannot be neglected that a percentage of Kurdish students who reached the final stages of high school do not know how to speak Arabic, and acceptable numbers have graduated from the Autonomous Administration universities without any recognition or knowledge accumulation.” They suggested that “all curricula should be merged into a single curriculum, subject to national consensus, and include all components, and that the Kurdish language can be made basic in the Kurdish region and a second language in the rest of Syria.”
As solutions, they suggested “the need to merge all the curricula into one curriculum, provided that it wins the national consensus and includes all components, and the Kurdish language can be made basic in the Kurdish region and a second language in the rest of Syria, or the curriculum can be offered in more than one language, provided that it is unified and recognized, and currently it is better to end the school year and appoint committees from now on to come up with an educational consensus.”
Researcher Ali Abdulmajeed said: “The best scientific solution is a single curriculum under the supervision of the state and specialists from all Syrian parties and entities, and the best is a national consensus on a single curriculum, but it requires a constitutional consensus first, an agreement on the future of the country, and a form of political stability and geographical consensus between the parties, and it is too early to talk about unifying curricula, currently the priority is diplomatic efforts, security and consensus between the actors present in the Syrian geography, to reach a unified educational material.”