Education Sector in Homs

Homs is one of the leading governorates in the field of science and education. Thousands of people with advanced degrees, hundreds of poets, writers, and translators have been graduated from Homs.

It is the city of culture as for its schools, universities and cultural forums. It is the crossroads of many civilizations, intellectuals and politicians.

To talk about the educational reality in the city, ST. had a meeting with Head of the Education Directorate in Homs, Mr. Ahmad Ibrahim, who said: ” Educational process starts by equipping the schools’ buildings. There are 1509 schools in Homs, including 1299 schools for the basic education, 163 schools for public high schools and 47 secondary schools for vocational education which are distributed as follows: 17 for industrial education, 10 for commercial education and 20 schools for feminist education. There is also 6 institutes in addition to the 213 private educational institutions and 25 kindergarten affiliated to the Ministry of Education that receive 1946 children.

The Directorate carries out constant courses for qualifying teachers, and specialists to improve the educational process and make it goes in line with the development of the educational curriculum. The Directorate provides free textbooks for all obligatory grades through the presses of Education Ministry. It also exerts strenuous efforts to provide schools with the needed equipment through its central workshops as well as it distributes educational devices and techniques that help in the progress of the educational process.

Ibrahim added: “The School Health Department in collaboration with the Ministry of Health carries out periodical tours to check the students’ heath and give the necessary treatments and vaccines. There is also mobile dental clinics that visit schools, according to a plan approved by the Department of Education and the Ministry”.

With regard to the educational process during the crisis, Ibrahim said:” The Wahhabi extremist thinking consider that science is his first and most important enemy. so fighting terrorism is primarily a battle of ideology. Fighting against Takfiri ideology is the first stage for eradicating terrorism. From the beginning of their move against the state, the schools and universities as well as all the institutes of science and education were the object of their criminal and hatred acts.

So such as the other sectors, Education sector has suffered from the terrorists acts targeting our country. The terrorists gangs targeted the schools, students and teachers during the last four year. The last hatred attack that was against Ekremaha al-Makhzoumi and Ekremaha al-Mouhdatha schools was an example representing their savagery. This savage explosion claimed the lives of 104 students and 23 teachers”.

Ibrahim went on to say: “Since the first day 184000 students in the province of Homs went to their schools and institutes challenging the hard circumstances the city have suffered from during the past years. We have successfully carried out the exams of 2015 first semester as it is planned by the Ministry of Education”.

“Despite all the challenges and difficulties and malevolent threats by Takfiri thought our teachers and our students keep going to their schools over the past four years thanks to the cooperation and support given by the city’s concerned parties including leadership of Baath party branch, the city council and all the security bodies and brave Syrian Arab army, which had the great merit in helping us to complete the exam in the previous years and ensure the safety of the students and the teaching staff.

We can say that the educational process this year is going in good pace in some areas and in a very good pace in other areas, thanks to the hard work done by the Department of Education for the implementation of the educational process as it is set by Ministry Education. We are working as a team with our colleagues in the school principals and administrators of the educational administrative complexes that serve as education mini-districts according to the laws and regulations drawn to these complexes”.

Talking about the procedures taken by the Directorate for the reconstruction of schools that have been affected by terrorist acts, Ibrahim said that Education Directorate is working in cooperation with the city governor and other active sectors to rebuild and rehabilitate schools that have been sabotaged by the systematic targeting of the armed terrorists as well as the schools in the areas controlled by armed gangs and secure the return of the students of those areas. He referred that some of 360 schools in the countryside and the city were decommissioned as a result of the terrorist coward act and the Directorate has set approximately 39 harboring schools.

Regarding the maintenance works performed by the Directorate during 2014, Ibrahim explained that Department of Education has implemented periodic maintenance for 325 schools in the city of Homs and the countryside with a total value of sp.60 million allocated from the investment budget of the Education Directorate stressing that maintenance workshops have rehabilitated a number of the affected schools in the areas that have become safe.

“A number of schools in Talkalakh and Sadad have also been rehabilitated in coordination and cooperation with the Directorate of Technical Services in the city at the expense of a number of national honest personalities”, he added referring that the Syrian University has also provided sp. 30 million for the rehabilitation of the affected schools across Homs.

“One of the most difficult challenges that we faced was carrying out the exams in 2011-2012, but we have managed, despite all these challenges, to accomplish these exams through an organized institutional work and thanks to the support we have received from all security authorities and thanks to the genuine will and determination of the Syrians to fight terrorist ideology by science and education,” he said firmly.

 “The damage is huge and we’ll need a lot of time and effort to overcome this dreadful disaster; yet we have no choice but to trust and believe in our victory and in saving and defending our country against the enemies of science, the death- devotees and destruction-seekers”.

Amal Farhat – from Homs to the Syria Times