Syrian schools stay open for all in spite of conflict

Govt says militant attacks have cost the lives of 800 educators

Syria's government is pushing compulsory education in the midst of an escalating civil war, promoting education as an alternative to violence, while using strict measures to compel displaced parents to send their children to school.

Education Minister Hazwan al-Waz said 4.5 million Syrian students are expected to attend 17,700 schools nationwide on Sunday, the first day of the country's 2014-15 academic year.

"It is a message to the world that the Syrian government is striving to spread the culture of peace and love that would overcome the culture of hatred and death the armed militant groups are trying to disseminate," he said, while touring a school in the countryside of the capital, Damascus, on Sunday.

Waz said that militant attacks against schools and education establishments in Syria have cost the government about $732 million, while about 800 workers in the education system had lost their lives in the conflict.

Displaced families who have sought refuge in Damascus have also had their children enrolled in nearby schools, the minister said. He added the Education Ministry had issued strict measures to urge displaced Syrians to enroll their children in school, warning that the government would withhold aid from those who don't.

Harsh measures

The harsh measures could be difficult for poor displaced Syrian families who send their children to work or to beg on the streets to help make ends meet.

It's not uncommon to see children from displaced families begging or selling small trinkets on the streets of the capital to help buy food and basic necessities for their families. However, the minister stressed that all of the schoolbooks are provided free to students, saying it was a sign of the government's dedication to educating Syria's youth in the midst of the crisis.

About 1 million school bags were also distributed to affected children in several Syrian provinces with the help of UNICEF, the minister said, adding that the teachers and other educational staff have entered training courses on how to provide students with psychological assistance and emergency evacuation in case of attacks.

Razan Sharaf, an elementary school teacher, said she and other teachers are not only working on educating students with books, but rather with activities that could take the students' minds off the violence that surrounds them so they can absorb the school curriculum in a fun and relaxed way.

"We have had children who came to us from many hot spots with very bad emotional issues. Some of them kept on crying and we had to first befriend them, to deal with them as friends before we started teaching them," Sharaf said. She always explains to students that there are bad times in life that people can conquer and overcome with love and friends, Sharaf added.

Mental health

Addressing the mental health of the incoming students has become a priority in the country's schools because so many children have witnessed unimaginable violence and have endured and carried the pain of the country's crisis which has lasted four years.

"Sure, we may not be able to take the kids out, so we turn the school into a playground or a theater so that when students enter the school, we can make them forget everything they have seen outside," the principal of Hussain Zain elementary school, Walada Abu Khlaif, said. "The mental health of the students has become more important than the class or education itself," he added.

(China Daily 09/16/2014 page11)