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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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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
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Lebanon's Public Schools Reopen amid War and Displacement

Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)
Children playing in a shelter center for displaced people in the town of Marwaniyah in South Lebanon (AP)

In the quiet seaside town of Amchit, 45 minutes north of Beirut, public schools are finally in session again, alongside tens of thousands of internally displaced people who have made some of them a makeshift shelter.

As Israeli strikes on Lebanon escalated in September, hundreds of schools in Lebanon were either destroyed or closed due to damage or security concerns, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Of around 1,250 public schools in Lebanon, 505 schools have also been turned into temporary shelters for some of the 840,000 people internally displaced by the conflict, according to the Lebanese education ministry.

Last month, the ministry started a phased reopening, allowing 175,000 students - 38,000 of whom are displaced - to return to a learning environment that is still far from normal, Reuters reported.

At Amchit Secondary Public School, which now has 300 enrolled students and expects more as displaced families keep arriving, the once-familiar spaces have transformed to accommodate new realities.

Two-and-a-half months ago, the school was chosen as a shelter, school director Antoine Abdallah Zakhia said.

Today, laundry hangs from classroom windows, cars fill the playground that was once a bustling area, and hallways that used to echo with laughter now serve as resting areas for families seeking refuge.

Fadia Yahfoufi, a displaced woman living temporarily at the school, expressed gratitude mixed with longing.

"Of course, we wish to go back to our homes. No one feels comfortable except at home," she said.

Zeina Shukr, another displaced mother, voiced her concerns for her children's education.

"This year has been unfair. Some children are studying while others aren't. Either everyone studies, or the school year should be postponed," she said.

- EDUCATION WON'T STOP

OCHA said the phased plan to resume classes will enrol 175,000 students, including 38,000 displaced children, across 350 public schools not used as shelters.

"The educational process is one of the aspects of resistance to the aggression Lebanon is facing," Education Minister Abbas Halabi told Reuters

Halabi said the decision to resume the academic year was difficult as many displaced students and teachers were not psychologically prepared to return to school.

In an adjacent building at Amchit Secondary Public School, teachers and students are adjusting to a compressed three-day week, with seven class periods each day to maximize learning time.

Nour Kozhaya, a 16-year-old Amchit resident, remains optimistic. "Lebanon is at war, but education won't stop. We will continue to pursue our dreams," she said.

Teachers are adapting to the challenging conditions.

"Everyone is mentally exhausted ... after all this war is on all of us," Patrick Sakr, a 38-year-old physics teacher, said.

For Ahmad Ali Hajj Hassan, a displaced 17-year-old from the Bekaa region, the three-day school week presents a challenge, but not a deterrent.

"These are the conditions. We can study despite them," he said.