Education is the path to self-development and the path to the future for societies. It unleashes various opportunities and reduces inequalities. It is the cornerstone on which enlightened and tolerant societies are built, and it is the main driver of sustainable development.
After the war in Syria lasted twelve years, After displacement and the spread of ignorance, efforts must be combined in all institutions, especially the educational institution because it has a major role in the advancement of society at all its social, cultural, political levels. The educational institution has a major role in rebuilding societal peace that was destabilized by war. It contributes positively to eliminating the various causes of violence. By reforming the educational system, we set the cornerstone to building an integrated society that rejects violence in all its forms and enhances the importance of learning toward a society where peace and justice prevail.
The reality of education in Syria before the war
The education system in Syria was not originally an ideal system, despite the state of stability that the country was experiencing. It suffered from errors and problems that affected its role in the development process of the country. Then, the war came and caused a major imbalance in the social fabric of Syrian society, causing unprecedented cases of displacement, Internal and external, in addition to human and material losses. All of these reasons led to the creation of a huge number of challenges in the face of the education process, which in turn forced those in charge of the education system to think of emergency solutions only to keep education continuing, even if slowly, and to save what was left of it.
Pillars of the educational system
Educators and teachers unanimously agreed that the role of the educational system should be built on several pillars, namely: Teachers, Students, Curricula. They are all affected by the sequence of relationships in the structure of the educational system.
1- Teachers:
Teachers represent the backbone of the educational system. Unforuntely, the war caused the death of a large portion of qualified teachers, the displacement and asylum of another portion, and the impossibility of qualifying and training new cadres on the other hand. In addition, many teachers suffer from other problems that stand in the way of development and modernization of the educational system due to the hierarchy of interests. For example, the current teacher’s salary is not enough to secure the most basic needs of living in light of the extreme high prices and inflation, and this in turn has caused psychological pressures on teachers, creatine a lack of desire for development. Therefore, we see a lot of Teachers are preoccupied with securing a living and neglect the end goal of education as they see it far away or perhaps even unrealistic under these circumstances. Therefore, we see significant numbers of teacher are not adapting educational practices to build peace, either due to lack of knowledge or lack of financial resources, or even lack of appreciation for the importance of this act.
2- Students:
It is a natural result of 12-years war, with all the disasters it left behind, to leave psychological effects and profound conditions that last long in the lives of students who lost their family members and homes and were forced to flee under harsh conditions of hunger, death and bombing. The displacement of people led to the gathering of large communities in specific safe areas that capacity of existing schools can’t absorb. The classrooms were filled with students from different environments and cultures. This coincided with the teachers’ lack of sufficient experience to deal with this problem, resulting in chaos, a lack of moral and discipline in schools, and an inability of teachers to have control over the situation.
On the other hand, there was an increase in the number of students dropping out of school. Parents decided to prevent their children from continuing their education, especially girls, due to fears that they would be harmed. Some children went to work to help their parents secure daily food instead of going to school. Press reports indicated that more than a million children in Syria are not enrolled in schools, which portends a deterioration in the level of education and performance among children.
3- Curricula:
Perhaps the largest problem that the educational system in Syria suffers from in the post-war period is the change in curricula introduced by the educational institution. This change in curricula is considered a negative step because it reduces the value of educational curricula as it is “urgent” curricula. Also, one of the obstacles that hindered the educational process is the poor economic situation.
As a result, the educational process lacked the necessary tools for development, and schools lacked the most important basic needs in addition to technological means such as: computers, Internet networks, and smart educational screens. Therefore, interaction with these curricula became missing, and even impossible to implement, creating a state of despair and frustration among students and teachers, and contributed In the low quality of education. not to mention the class disparity that occurs between public and private schools in this area.
The negative effects of the war in Syria on all levels have made the educational system in Syria shackled and unable to advance the situation of education. Hope was dashed in the ability of this exhausted educational system to build the basis of justice and societal peace. There were renewed fears that the educational system would become a nucleus for reigniting the fuse of war again. Therefore, the next stage requires tremendous and condensed efforts to overcome the aforementioned obstacles, with the need for transitional plans that ensure an effective role for education in building a sustainable basis for societal justice and the rejection of violence in all its forms, to be a nucleus for building societal peace through which the country will regain its health and societal and educational stability.
In our message calling for the protection of education in Syria, We once again convey the calls and cries of the Syrian people to the member states of the United Nations and international organizations concerned with providing assistance to the Syrian people. We call on them to intervene urgently to save the Syrians in accordance with the requirements of international law and the International Charter. In addition to taking immediate measures to stop and condemn the violence and address the attacks and gross violations of human rights that resulted in the brutal destruction of Syrian schools.
Most importantly, we call on them to work with civil society institutions and organizations working in the field of education to rebuild and repair schools and the educational system throughout Syria, at the same time, keeping education at the top of the priorities of the global program to support the development infrastructure in Syria during the recovery phase, in addition to re-evaluating, reforming and unifying the curricula, with on end goal, that’s to obtain high-quality, safe, and appropriate education in all Syrian regions without exception.
