Damascus University’s Political Science Faculty confronts its Baathist past, as professors and students navigate de-Baathification, political divisions and the uncertain boundaries of academic freedom in post-Assad Syria.
As Damascus and the SDF inch towards integration, is northeastern Syria heading for unified state institutions, “complementary integration,” or a revival of divided influence?
More than a month into the 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 SDF.
University students who returned to Druze-majority Suwayda during recent sectarian tensions on their campuses were stopped by a local armed group as they tried to go back to school last week. Some fear education is being politicized amid tensions with Damascus.
Long-suppressed by the Assad regime, the Kurdish language underwent an educational and cultural revival in Syria over the past decade. In the new Syria, its speakers refuse to lose ground and are fighting for recognition.
Syrians who lived in areas run by the Turkey-backed opposition Syrian Interim Government (SIG) before Assad fell last year face challenges related to the recognition of their official documents by the country’s new authorities.
Damascus residents speak with a new tone, using new words, as entrenched fears unravel with the fall of the Assad regime. Still, concerns remain about what awaits in a new Syria.
Facing a teacher shortage and little government support, communities in Daraa are turning to alternative solutions: providing financial bonuses to keep underpaid teachers in classrooms and repairing school buildings themselves.
Grinding poverty keeps thousands of children out of school and on the job in northwestern Syria. Across the country, more than 43 percent of children do not go to school, raising fears of a generation left behind.
To obtain records from Syrian public universities, students must apply in person or through legal proxies. If this is not possible, or if they are wanted by the security services, they are forced to pay hundreds of dollars in bribes to state employees through brokers.
