ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Turkish is not a global language, its class periods reduce those of Arabic and English, and there are no enough qualified teachers to teach it, a teacher from the city of Azaz in northern Aleppo said on Wednesday.
Mehsen al-Jamil, 35, a pseudonym for an Arabic language teacher in Azaz Education Center, affiliated with Turkish-backed opposition, wondered about the benefits implied in learning Turkish language after it was made one of the basic subjects to be taught at schools in areas under the control of the Turkish forces and the affiliated armed factions, known as Syrian National Army (SNA).
Since July 2012, the city of Azaz and its countryside are under the control of Turkey and its affiliated opposition factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA).
Al-Jamil counted demerits of the Turkish language in the region, “It is not a global language, the class periods assigned to Turkish reduces those given to English, the first widely spoken language, and eventually reduces the ones assigned to Arabic,” al- Jamil told North Press.
In addition, the cadres are unqualified to teach the language, “Education directorates recruit unqualified teachers for Turkish the matter creates a gap between teachers and students. At the end of the day, this impinges upon education as a whole,” the teacher said.
Since it controlled it, Turkey has always sought to control service, educational and medical arenas within its project to subjugate these areas under the pretext of protecting its southern borders.
Making Turkish a compulsory subject at schools, is one of the tools by which Turkey seeks Turkification of the region and to subject it.
Turkish was a compulsory and a failed course at schools in areas under the Syrian opposition.
In the academic year 2017-2018, Turkey inserted Turkish into curricula in basic and secondary stages as a first step in the demographic change process already taking place and the Turkification policy applied in areas it occupies.
Mamoun Mansour, a pseudonym for a teacher in Azaz said, adding a new curricula resonating English and Arabic, the main teaching language and the mother tongue of the Syrian people, is “improper”.
Mamoun added that holds the students much burdens and makes them absentminded as they are obliged to learn [more] languages.”
Since Turkish is being taught at schools at the time being, Mansour called for assigning Turkish teachers to assume the job, “That is better to recruit unqualified teachers that do not understand nor articulate it properly. Then they will teach it improperly that could create more complications.”
Bushra al-Saleh, 30, a pseudonym for a Turkish language teacher in the Azaz Education Directorate said, “The students’ desire to learn Turkish has become an imposition in order to continue their study.”
However, the Turkish impinged upon students, according to Bushra, because it has become a failed course as Arabic though it is a third language after Arabic the mother tongue and English, the world’s first spoken one.
Though Turkish language has become compulsory, al-Saleh expressed her belief that “It ought to be a cultural language and to be chosen by students instead of imposing it.”