1) It is forbidden to teach a lesson in the mother tongue of the Kurdish language. Teachers are forced
to give lessons to pupils in Arabic which nobody understands, thus reflecting a strategy of the
government in excluding the Kurds from a prospective education.
2) Schools in Kurdish areas are in very poor condition, usually with a substantial lack of chairs, desks
and teaching material.
3) Teachers in Kurdish areas are not well trained and the authorities always punish bad teachers from
the other cities by sending them to Kurdish areas.
My own experience as teacher in the Kurdish area of Syria showed me that less than 5% of the pupil
population continue onto secondary school. The next difficulty is that there are very few secondary
schools in the Kurdish area and no public university available. To continue secondary school or to
study at a university, Kurdish students are forced to move to the city- which is very expensive and
very few families can afford.
Despite these barriers, some students do reach a university level education and along with studying
they work to finance their education. The authorities however, exercise blatant control and can expel a
Kurdish student from the University for any reason.Therefore most of the Kurdish children stop at this
stage and start working. Child labour has thus become the norm in the Kurdish society.
Statistics available show that from 2003 onwards, the authorities have expelled more than 100
Kurdish students from the universities in Damascus and Aleppo and left them without any perspective
to face their destiny.
These 100 students could have been 100 doctors or 100 lawyers, 100 agricultural engineers or 100
teachers or economists, but the Syrian government has re-enforced through Article 21, from the
Syrian constitution, that these 100 students are not candidates for the Arabic national socialistic
generation.
Thank you very much.
Jian Badrakhan
YASA e.V. – Kurdish Centre for Legal Studies & Consultancy