KOBANI/AIN ISSA, Syria (North Press) – Ahmad sends his four children to school, watching anxiously from his doorstep the Turkish posts on the other side of the border which are 700 meters from the Syrian-Turkish border.
The 38-year-old Ahmad Hassan, a resident of the border village of Kazkan, east of Kobani in northern Syria, said “We live with our children under the threat of Turkish shelling.”
About 60 students go to Kazkan village school amid constant concern, as Turkish attacks escalate.
With the start of the new school year 2022-2023 in the areas of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), education are taking place in the schools of border villages between Syria and Turkey according to the developments of the military situation.
The educational process is interrupted during the Turkish shelling. Teachers are forced to close schools during bombing period and send students to their houses for fear of casualties.
Those in charge of the educational process fear the continuation of the shelling will lead to delays in the teaching the curriculum.
On September 18, with the start of the school year in the AANES-held areas, the Turkish forces bombed villages along the border strip in Kobani.
The Turkish forces targeted the villages of Kharabisan, Koran, Zormaghar, and Kolteb in the eastern and western countryside of Kobani.
In addition, four shells hit the outskirts of the city of Kobani.
A civilian was wounded due to the Turkish shelling of the village of Qaramogh, 20 km east of Kobani.
Three Syrian government soldiers were killed due to the Turkish shelling of a military post in the village of Jishan, 25 km east of Kobani.
In Kazkan village, Newroz Kurd, 36, is anxiously awaiting her child’s return from school, “the bombing may happen at any moment.”
When the bombing is violent, Kurd, as well as the residents of her village, is forced to leave the village, but this affects the education of children, especially since some families may not return to their homes after several days or a week.
The woman said that she rushed to the village school on the first day of school year to check on her child after hearing the sounds of shelling in the neighboring villages.
She added, “We live in a state of panic while the bombing is taking place.”
On August 16, a 14-year-old child lost his life, another two-year-old one along with two people were injured, medical sources revealed then.
On August 16, residents of the border villages in the western countryside of Kobani in the eastern countryside of Aleppo were forced to flee towards the southern villages due to the escalation of the Turkish bombardment.
On the first day of the school year, villages of Ain Issa town, north of Raqqa, witnessed shelling by the Turkish forces, which caused a state of panic, especially among the students’ families.
According to the Education Committee in the town, more than 3.000 students were deprived of their right to education in the countryside of Tel Abyad and Ain Issa, last year, due to the destruction of schools located on the contact lines.
The schools of the villages of al-Zaydi, Terwaziyah Wusta, Terwaziyah Shimaliyah, and Safyan in the countryside of Ain Issa are still out of service due to the bombing affected them.
The 30-year-old, Noor Saleh, a mother of four, said that the bombing is random, which increases her fears for her children’s lives.
She refers to the children saying, “Sometimes they go back home an hour after work starts because shells fall on the town.”
“Sometimes I do not send my children to school when we hear the sound of the shelling,” she added.