Over 200,000 students out of school as violence disrupts education in NE Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Gulistan Ismail, co-chair of the Education Board in Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria, said on Monday that the start of the second academic semester has been postponed in schools across Jazira and Kobani due to the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in the area.
Ismail told North Press that the second semester had been scheduled to begin on the 25 of January, but ongoing attacks by forces of the Syrian transitional government, including large-scale displacement from the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo, as well as from Tabqa and Raqqa toward Hasakah Governorate—have made it impossible to proceed as planned.
Over the past few days, nearly 5,000 families have been displaced from Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhood in Aleppo city, in addition to eastern rural Aleppo, and have arrived in cities across Hasakah.
“Students should have been sitting in their classrooms and continuing their education at this time, but unfortunately these attacks have deprived more than 200,000 students in Jazira of schooling,” Ismail said.
She explained that repeated attacks have prevented authorities from reopening schools and receiving students and teachers.
Ismail noted that Hasakah Governorate has around 1,700 schools, all of which are currently sheltering displaced families.
“The number of displaced people is extremely large, and there were no available shelter centers other than schools—especially as we are in the winter season and facing very harsh weather conditions that make it impossible to house families in tents,” she added.