SDF militia’s seizure of schools in Syria’s Hasakah deprives thousands of students from education

The seizure of schools in Hasakah by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia has badly affected the stability of the education process in the government-affiliated schools that adopt the Syrian Education Ministry’s curricula. Overcrowding and the lack of suitable conditions for education are the most notable phenomena that characterizes the education situation in Hasakah province, despite the measures taken by the government to accept as large a number of students as possible in order to ensure the continuation of education.

 Moreover, images of parents accompanying their children to schools by trucks, bicycles or other collective transport means reflects the daily suffering that faces the students and their families while trying to reach the governmental schools, which are far away from their houses, particularly after the SDF militia have seized most of the schools.

Each school contains children from all over Hasakah neighborhoods. Parents have only one choice, which is to enroll their children in government-affiliated schools in the center of the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, because the SDF militia closed most of the schools in Hasakah and its countryside, turned a number of them into military headquarters and used the other schools to impose certain curricula that is completely rejected by the citizens.

Some citizens in Al-Nashwa neighborhood told SANA that the people face great suffering, mainly in looking for a school to enroll their children, as all schools, both private and public, are overcrowded. They affirmed that this is the result of the SDF militia’s plan to deprive thousands of children of education so that it can easily control their future.

“I live in Al-Zuhour neighborhood in the south of Hasakah city center. I have got three children at school, but there are no schools in the neighborhood. All the schools were either destroyed or turned by the SDF militia into military headquarters.” one of the citizens said, adding that “I have to accompany my children to school every day and bring them back, which adds more to my financial burden.

Director of Education Elham Sourkhan said that the SDF militia insists on seizing schools, turning them into military headquarters and depriving thousands of students of education.

 As the new academic year started, the SDF militia seized three schools in the Tay neighborhood in Qamishli and expelled the teaching staff, Sourkhan pointed out.

Sourkhan added that “130 thousand students have enrolled in the 197 schools run by the Directorate of Education in the cities of Hasaka and Qamishli, while the SDF militia seized 2,000 schools in all parts of the province.”

Hamda Mustafa