Assyria: Syriac-Assyrian Introduced in Schools in Western Kurdistan
Photo Courtesy of DFID 2013 @Flickr
According to the Rojava Education Commission, the old Ba’athist curriculum has now been replaced, just in time for the 2016/2017 school year. The new curriculum will now be taught in Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac-Assyrian to cater to the different ethnicities present in the region. This change encompasses the majority of schools in the region, aside from a few that are still under Assad’s control. Whilst in the recent past many children in the region have not been able to attend school due to the on-going humanitarian crisis ravaging the area, many are now able to go back and therefore profit from this curriculum change, that grants legitimacy to their ethnic group and culture.
Below is an article published by the Assyrian International News Agency:
The 2016-2017 school year has started in Northern Syria -- Rojava (NSR), and the self-administration has introduced a brand new Kurdish curriculum.
According to the Rojava's Education Commission, the old Ba'athist curriculum has been replaced. Primary education will now be taught in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac-Assyrian.
The overwhelming majority of the schools in Syria's northeastern Hasakah Governorate are controlled by the NSR administration. The exceptions are a handful of schools inside regime-held areas and a number of private Christian schools in Hasakah and Qamishli.
Nisirin Anez, a school director in Qamishli said: "Actually many students started their education in the area this year. And many of them had to stop for years due to the ongoing crisis while others had to go to private schools. Now a large number of those students are registered at the public schools [of Rojava]."
Mihemed Salih Abdo, Co-Chair of the Rojava Education Committee, told ARA News that the regime's curriculum has been removed completely from the primary schools of Jazira Canton.
"Three curriculums have replaced the old one, to include teaching in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Assyrian," Abdo said.
