A struggle over education continues in northeastern Syria

QAMISHLI — More than a month into the 2025-2026 academic year in northeastern Syria, students enrolled in a number of schools remain locked out of their classrooms as a years-long struggle continues over what and how students learn in areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

In late September, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) shut down private schools teaching the Damascus government’s curriculum rather than its own. While a November 2 agreement with local churches led to the reopening of private Christian schools this week, other private institutions remain shuttered. 

Syria Direct spoke to 11 families in the Hasakah province city of Qamishli during the weeks-long shutdown. This week, some were able to send their children back to class at Christian schools, while others still have no solutions.

Lara Asaad (a pseudonym) told Syria Direct how the start of the school year quickly unraveled, leaving two of her three children—a sixth grader and a second grader—out of class until this week. 

The trouble began on September 3, when the AANES Education Board notified local schools of its decision to bar the Damascus curriculum in all schools and asked them to exclusively adopt the AANES curriculum. At the time, the order was circulated by word of mouth.

Asaad’s children were set to start school at their private Christian school on September 21, but the administration pushed the start date back to September 28. When classes began, “members of the AANES Education Board came and met with the administration. At the end of the day, the school was closed until further notice,” she told Syria Direct. 

Looking for solutions over the weeks that followed, she enrolled her sixth-grade daughter in private lessons with a teacher offering the government curriculum at his home. She homeschooled her younger son, and considered distance learning.

But as Asaad weighed her options, sending her children to schools teaching the AANES curriculum was not one of them. “A stable and recognized education” is her priority, and for that reason she was willing to pay the cost of their private Christian school—around 6 million Syrian pounds ($500) last year. 

Educational patchwork

Up until the fall of the regime last December, the educational landscape in AANES-run areas was a patchwork. 

In 2015, the AANES Education Authority replaced the Assad regime’s curriculum with its own at all public schools, except for those located in security squares in Qamishli and Hasakah city that remained under regime control. Private schools, including Christian schools concentrated in Qamishli’s al-Wusta neighborhood, also continued to teach the Damascus curriculum.

Residents of the area—Arabs, Kurds and Syriacs alike—had two options: either enroll their children in AANES schools—which teach their own curriculum in three languages, but whose diplomas are not recognized outside northeastern Syria—or enroll them at public or private schools following the Damascus curriculum. Many parents chose the latter. 

With most schools that taught the government curriculum concentrated in the security squares and Christian neighborhoods of Hasakah and Qamishli, many students had to travel long distances, either driven by their parents or using public transportation.

After the Assad regime fell on December 8, 2024, the educational status quo shifted. The AANES took control of the security squares in Hasakah and Qamishli, including the public schools there. For parents who wanted their children to learn the official government curriculum, private schools would be the only option. 

But when the school year began in mid-September, the AANES Education Authority opened its public schools while moving to remove that option. Private schools whose administrations refused to swap curricula remained closed.

A question of recognition

The reluctance of many in northeastern Syria to send their children to AANES schools does not necessarily stem from political views, but from a desire to ensure their children’s diplomas are officially recognized. 

“If their [AANES] diplomas and curriculum were recognized, it would be possible to send my children to their schools,” Zainab Ismail, 36, a mother of three living in Qamishli, told Syria Direct. She has not sent her children—who previously studied at a public school teaching the government curriculum—back to school this year.

“The diplomas issued by the AANES are not officially recognized by the Damascus government to allow those with them to enter public universities in the future,” Helbest Haidar, 45, explained. 

His children, a seventh grader and a third grader, are enrolled in a private Christian school. While it was shut down, his wife, who holds a degree in sociology, taught them Arabic and math at home while they continued English lessons at a private language institute in Qamishli. 

“If my son were to decide to leave Syria, he would not be able to have a diploma issued by the AANES recognized. He would lose his future,” Haidar said. He mentioned that his nephew, who studied the government curriculum at public schools in northeastern Syria, was able to use his diploma to study in neighboring Iraq. 

All the families Syria Direct spoke to—who included one Christian family, one Arab family and nine Kurdish families—said the main reason they did not send their children to AANES schools was because they are not recognized, a fact that puts up barriers to studying at public universities in Syria or abroad. 

Additionally, AANES diplomas are not recognized for the purpose of applying for public sector jobs elsewhere in Syria, putting the academic and professional future of their children at risk, they said. 

Ismail said the AANES curriculum itself is weak and not suited to students’ age levels, alongside a lack of teaching staff with specialized degrees in education. 

Asaad, who herself once worked as an English teacher in AANES public schools, pointed to what she said is a large gap between the government curriculum and AANES curriculum for Arab students. “The content is very weak, compared to the government curriculum, and contains little information,” she said.

For example, the fifth-grade English curriculum at AANES schools is limited to teaching the alphabet, while children learning the government curriculum are studying verb tenses and their use, she added. 

Helav Othman (a pseudonym), 26, chose to send her son, a second grader, to an AANES public school after his private school that taught the government curriculum shut down. She was surprised at the large number of students in his new classroom, with “80 students in my son’s class,” she told Syria Direct.

An ‘unfair’ decision

Following the signing of the March 10 integration agreement between Syrian transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa and commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi, extensive talks began between the two sides on a range of topics, including education in northeastern Syria. 

Despite apparent consensus between the two sides to begin dialogue and form follow-up committees, no agreement has been reached regarding a mechanism for overseeing education, the balance of local and central government authority, the approved curriculum and accompanying legal frameworks. 

As a result, the AANES banned the Damascus curriculum in its areas. The move contravenes the March agreement, which stipulated the integration of all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria into the state. 

“The decision to ban the government curriculum is unfair to the students,” Jihan Suleiman, 43, a mother of two high schoolers, said. “My children are frustrated, because their academic future is threatened.” Her children attended public schools teaching the regime curriculum, and have not returned since the AANES curriculum was implemented.

In the predominantly Christian al-Wusta neighborhood of Qamishli, Maya Issa (a pseudonym), a Christian with three children in the third, fifth and eighth grades, expressed her dissatisfaction with the decision, saying it “isn’t right.”

Before this week’s agreement with church leaders to reopen Christian private schools, some families were planning to “move to [other] Syrian provinces controlled by the state to enroll their children in public schools,” she told Syria Direct. Such a move would have been hard for her, requiring “additional housing and costs we cannot afford,” she said. 

‘The right to choose’

“The former regime’s curriculum was taught in the security squares, but they fell when it fell,” Adnan Berri, co-chair of the AANES Education Board in the Jazira region, told Syria Direct. “It was natural for these schools to operate under the laws and curriculum of the Education Board…in which each student learns in their native language.” 

The body allowed schools teaching the Damascus curriculum to continue until the end of last school year, before changing to the AANES system in September, he added. 

Negotiations related to the March 10 integration agreement are “ongoing, and there are political and diplomatic committees coordinating directly with the Education Authority to negotiate a mechanism that takes community-specific considerations into account,” Berri said. 

For more than a month, however, thousands of students in northeastern Syria were out of school, caught between the AANES ban and their families’ refusal to send them to its schools. The reopening of private Christian schools this week resolved the situation for many, but not all. 

Families who have sought out alternative education through private lessons using the government curriculum fear repercussions, as the AANES prohibits private lessons at institutes or homes, with the exception of English classes. 

Recently, the Education Board conducted inspections of a number of private institutes, especially those that used to offer courses using the government curriculum, and shut them down. It has also stressed to English language institutes that they must only teach languages, Suleiman, who runs a private language institute, said. 

Ismail called for education to be left alone until a clear integration framework can be agreed upon. “Given that we live in a region that champions democracy and freedom of opinion, parents should have the right to choose the curriculum they want their children to be taught,” she said. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.