Nour Al-Ahmad – Al-Hasakah
“I cannot comprehend lessons in my school. Our number in one classroom is high which is around 70 of male and female students sitting in one small room called a “classroom”. Side conversations and the chaos made by students are louder than the teacher’s voice”. This is how Rahma, aged 16 and in her first year in secondary school, described the situation in her Syrian State-school in Al-Hasakah where she does not benefit from the education due to the high number of students in the classroom, and the teacher’s negligence of working hours and conducting lessons.
Rahma is keen on not missing any day at school, and what increases her suffering along with others in similar cases is that she must walk 40 minutes daily on foot from her house to the school. This is due to the closure of the bridge connecting her area in the south of Al-Hasakah, which is controlled by Syrian Democratic Forces, and her school located in the Security Complex.
The northeastern Syria areas are suffering from a distracted and divided education reality. The Autonomous Administration, according to Athr Press Website, manages 90% of schools whereas the Syrian Government manages 10% only. Around 1000 students (males and female) are taught in one school building which cannot accommodate more than half this number. Schools are suffering from students’ overcrowding because of that.
Najwa (pseudonym) is a teacher at one of the government schools in Al-Hasakah city who talked to us about the students: “the students’ comprehension of the information is not on the required level. It affects them that they exist with a high number of students. We had tried from our end to control the classroom and ease the pressure and noise coming out from some of them, but the chaos continued”.
Najwa clarified for us how true the complaints recorded were during the preparation of this report about some teachers’ negligence of the working hours. She said “our psychological and financial status is dire as teachers. We are forced to spend our monthly income on transportation. If there is foreshortening by some of us, it is normal as we are human beings in the end. What motivates some of us to commit and teach with integrity is our commitment towards this generation who has no guilt in what is happening in the country”.
A government-school teacher receives a monthly salary in the amount of around 350,000 SYP after the recent increase of 100%, equivalent to 25 USD, which is not adequate for one person’s food in the light of the exorbitant price increase day after day in NES areas. This is because of the continuous and increasing deterioration of SYP vs USD.
Families resort to solutions to compensate for the scientific flaw children are suffering from. They enroll their children in private education courses whether in private institutes or classrooms held at the house of the private tutor. This is only limited to the Security Complex because of blocking teaching Damascus Government curricula in the areas controlled by SDF.
Private lessons assist students in compensating for scientific shortage, but it lays a big financial burden on families as well as students spending most of their time between school and these lessons.
One of the alternative solutions families are resorting is private schools which fees are expensive. Doha says “I am forced to send my child to a private school and pay 100 USD monthly so that he receives good education. I prefer to pay this entire amount to send him to a public school full of mess or the Autonomous Administration school that is not accredited.
The schools affiliated with the Autonomous Administration Education Commission have a special curriculum in Kurdish in primary education. Arabic or any other language the student chooses is listed in 5th grade and English is listed in 6th grade.
Despite all obstacles students are facing in public schools, they still prefer to enroll in these schools and avoid the Autonomous Administration schools for two reasons: 1) the Administration certificates are still not accredited by any international nor governmental entity, and 2) teaching Kurdish is in the first 4 years of primary education.
There is a big discrepancy between the number of students in the Autonomous Administration schools and the Syrian State schools, and according to a statement by the co-president, Rajab Almushref, of the Education Commission of the Autonomous Administration, the number has exceeded 860,000 students out of which 134,891 are enrolled in the Autonomous schools. This is according to Elham Sarokhan statement, the Syrian Government Education Director to Athr Press.
These students usually enroll in the transitional regular grades only while in the primary certificate and secondary certificate grades (9th and 12th), families prefer to send their children to Damascus Government schools and universities.
This duality and division of the controlling powers on the education system in NES, and dispersion students and parents are facing equally negatively impact the education quality in the region.
We thus conclude with what Aya’s mother said to us speaking on behalf of many of the region’s people: “I wish the day when education here is stable comes. We and our children are tired of this dispersion. I hope they reach an agreement among them. I hear that the Autonomous Administration schools are good, but they are not accredited. I want my children to be armed with certificates that allow them to work after graduation and to be able to communicate and write in their mother language”.
