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3 Curricula Adopted at Schools in Northeastern Syria

Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria announced that they were adopting three curricula at schools in regions under their control. (AFP)
Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria announced that they were adopting three curricula at schools in regions under their control. (AFP)
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3 Curricula Adopted at Schools in Northeastern Syria

Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria announced that they were adopting three curricula at schools in regions under their control. (AFP)
Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria announced that they were adopting three curricula at schools in regions under their control. (AFP)

The Education Authority affiliated with the autonomous Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria announced that it was adopting three curricula at schools in its regions under their control.

One curriculum was devised by the autonomous authority and is being taught at schools in the Jazira and Euphrates regions and to refugees from the Afrin region who are at camps in the Aleppo countryside. The second curriculum is that of the official Syrian state and is being taught at schools in Manbij and its countryside and the nearby town of al-Arima.

The third curriculum was approved by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and is taught at the cities of Tabaqa, the Raqqa province and eastern Deir Ezzour region. These areas are controlled by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

This third curriculum was introduced after locals protested against the adoption of the autonomous region’s curriculum. They instead demanded the adoption of the UNICEF curriculum until a program that is approved by all Syrians can be adopted. They also urged against dragging the academic year into political and military disputes.

Head of the Education Authority, Rajab al-Mushref, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the three curricula will be implemented throughout all school levels, starting from kindergarten to grade 12.

Some 4 million books were handed out to schools and academic institutions, he said. Books from the UNICEF curriculum, estimated at about 1 million, have yet to be received by the authority.

Officials at UNICEF pledged to send the books at the beginning of the school year, he revealed. Teachers and staff have, meanwhile, been trained on the new curriculum, which is only adopted at times of crisis. It only covers four subjects: Math, science and Arabic and English language classes.

Some 825,000 students showed up for the first day of school amid strict health measures that have been imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, revealed Mushref

He also denied reports that the Kurdish authorities had suspended the school year due to the Syrian government’s insistence on imposing its curriculum.

“We had made an announcement that such reports were false,” he stated.

The withdrawal of regime forces from several parts of Kurdish regions allowed the autonomous authority to introduce its own curriculum that teaches Kurdish and Syriac alongside Arabic.

An academic official in al-Hasakeh revealed that 125,000 students had returned to school in regime-held regions. They will attend classes at 180 schools, while SDF-held regions boast 2,106 schools.

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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)

Golden fields of wheat no longer produce the bounty they once did in Morocco. A six-year drought has imperiled the country's entire agriculture sector, including farmers who grow cereals and grains used to feed humans and livestock.

The North African nation projects this year's harvest will be smaller than last year in both volume and acreage, putting farmers out of work and requiring more imports and government subsidies to prevent the price of staples like flour from rising for everyday consumers.

"In the past, we used to have a bounty — a lot of wheat. But during the last seven or eight years, the harvest has been very low because of the drought," said Al Housni Belhoussni, a small-scale farmer who has long tilled fields outside of the city of Kenitra.

Belhoussni's plight is familiar to grain farmers throughout the world confronting a hotter and drier future. Climate change is imperiling the food supply and shrinking the annual yields of cereals that dominate diets around the world — wheat, rice, maize and barley.

In North Africa, among the regions thought of as most vulnerable to climate change, delays to annual rains and inconsistent weather patterns have pushed the growing season later in the year and made planning difficult for farmers.

In Morocco, where cereals account for most of the farmed land and agriculture employs the majority of workers in rural regions, the drought is wreaking havoc and touching off major changes that will transform the makeup of the economy. It has forced some to leave their fields fallow. It has also made the areas they do elect to cultivate less productive, producing far fewer sacks of wheat to sell than they once did.

In response, the government has announced restrictions on water use in urban areas — including on public baths and car washes — and in rural ones, where water going to farms has been rationed.

"The late rains during the autumn season affected the agriculture campaign. This year, only the spring rains, especially during the month of March, managed to rescue the crops," said Abdelkrim Naaman, the chairman of Nalsya. The organization has advised farmers on seeding, irrigation and drought mitigation as less rain falls and less water flows through Morocco's rivers.

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that this year's wheat harvest will yield roughly 3.4 million tons (3.1 billion kilograms), far less than last year's 6.1 million tons (5.5 billion kilograms) — a yield that was still considered low. The amount of land seeded has dramatically shrunk as well, from 14,170 square miles (36,700 square kilometers) to 9,540 square miles (24,700 square kilometers).

Such a drop constitutes a crisis, said Driss Aissaoui, an analyst and former member of the Moroccan Ministry for Agriculture.

"When we say crisis, this means that you have to import more," he said. "We are in a country where drought has become a structural issue."

Leaning more on imports means the government will have to continue subsidizing prices to ensure households and livestock farmers can afford dietary staples for their families and flocks, said Rachid Benali, the chairman of the farming lobby COMADER.

The country imported nearly 2.5 million tons of common wheat between January and June. However, such a solution may have an expiration date, particularly because Morocco's primary source of wheat, France, is facing shrinking harvests as well.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization ranked Morocco as the world's sixth-largest wheat importer this year, between Türkiye and Bangladesh, which both have much bigger populations.

"Morocco has known droughts like this and in some cases known droughts that las longer than 10 years. But the problem, this time especially, is climate change," Benali said.