Kurdish students continue protests over Syria education decision
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Kurdish students continued protests for a second consecutive day across several cities in northeastern Syria on Monday, demanding the adoption of Kurdish as a language of instruction alongside Arabic in public schools.
The demonstrations coincided with the start of the 2026-2027 academic year, which began across Syria on Sunday, amid growing opposition to a recent decision by the Syrian Ministry of Education limiting Kurdish-language instruction to three classes per week.
In Qamishli, students staged protests at several schools and carried banners reading, “Let the Kurdish language live forever,” “We only want our right,” and “Our language is not an additional subject.”
The students rejected treating Kurdish as a supplementary subject, saying education in their mother tongue is a fundamental right and calling for Kurdish to be recognized as a core language in the public education system alongside Arabic.
The protests were also reported in Tal Tamr town, where students at Adnan al-Maliki School staged a sit-in and chanted slogans against limiting Kurdish instruction to three weekly lessons.
Students said that their demand goes beyond increasing the number of Kurdish-language classes, stressing that they want broader guarantees for education in their mother tongue and the preservation of Kurdish linguistic and cultural identity.
In Chel Agha (al-Jawadiya), students at the Gharbi Jahwa village school in the Alyan area also organized a protest inside their schoolyard, calling for curricula to be taught in Kurdish.
The protests follow a decision issued by Syria’s Education Ministry on Aug. 27 regulating Kurdish-language education during what Damascus described as a transitional academic year. Under the decision, Kurdish would be taught for three hours per week, while some non-scientific subjects, including history, geography and philosophy, would be translated into Kurdish.
Students in Qamishli and other parts of northeastern Syria boycotted classes on Sunday to protest the decision, with demonstrations also reported in Kobani.
The continuing protests highlight growing Kurdish demands for broader recognition of linguistic and educational rights as Syria’s new academic year gets underway.