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.
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.
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.
Increasing numbers of Syrian public sector employees left their jobs due to low pay and high living costs over the past three years, despite the fact that quitting without permission is a criminal offense.
Students in Damascus and other regime-controlled areas went back to school on Sunday. Rising costs of stationery and state-printed schoolbooks left parents and guardians with difficult choices amid the country’s unprecedented economic crisis.
In opposition-held Idlib, thousands of teachers have been working without pay due to lost funding, some for as long as two years. Now at their breaking point, they are on strike.
