KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Shervan is scared to send his children to the school since his city was hit by Turkish warplanes on Saturday night.
Villages, towns and cities along the border with Turkey underwent relentless bombardment by Turkish warplanes and artillery over the past days claiming lives and destroying vital facilities and infrastructure in the whole area.
Shervan Omar, 34, has five children, three of whom study at schools run by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in Kobani city, says he has refrained to send his children to school citing fears over their safety since Turkey has been indiscriminately striking the area.
Shervan says he will let his children return to the school when calm returns to the area.
Turkish strikes against the city of Kobani, northern Syria, and its countryside caused panic among civilians, notably after the Children Hospital and a school in Kobani eastern countryside were hit by Turkish bombardment. Locals since that date refuse to send their children to schools.
Most schools, locating near the border line, are closed down fearing new attacks could renew at any moment. The AANES’ Education Board in Kobani kept the schools open in the city. However, most pupils remain at home, causing very low attendance.
People concerned with education fear prolonged shelling and bombing could affect the educational system.
On November 23, a number of villages in east Kobani underwent violent shelling by artillery. The bombardment completely destroyed the school of the village of Koran. A number of houses in the village were damaged too.
Omar indicates Turkish shelling at late hours of the night caused a state of fear and panic among the population.
People living on border areas with Turkey live in constant panic.
As a result, friends of Darin Jineid, 11, a student at the sixth grade at Nuda Avshin School in Kobani city, no longer attend school since the Turkish bombardment started days ago.
At Nuda Avashin, there were 30 students at sixth grade prior to the Turkish shelling. However, only three to four students attend the school.
Teachers say most students at schools are preoccupied with loud sounds of Turkish ground and air bombardment. Nourhan Muhammad, a fifth grade teacher at the school says teachers attend school.
Nourhan says the number of students attending is very low owing to the Turkish attacks.
The teacher notes the number of students attending her class was 27 ones prior to the strikes, but now no more than four attend.
However, not only Nourhan’s students are low in attendance, as the number dropped from 600 students, prior to the Turkish escalation, to just 24 to 30.
Bakr Jarada, Co-chair of the AANES’ Education Board in the Euphrates Region, assures the above-mentioned remarks that attacks against hospitals and schools made parents refrain from sending their children to schools.
Jarada calls on Russia and NGOs to bear responsibility in protecting children and prevent Turkish attacks, as well as to “stand up to terror, savagery and fascism of the Turkish state and stop it.”