HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – At a table crowded with books and stationery in her house in al-Mufti neighborhood in Hasakah, northeast Syria, Rousim Hussein is reviewing high school curriculum of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
AANES General Board of Education set exams date of preparatory and secondary with both scientific and literary branches in the Jazira Region on June 6.
Hussein, a Kurdish high school female student of scientific branch, expresses her pleasure to set her exams in the mother tongue, while her peers of other communities will also set their exams according the Arabic curriculum of AANES Education Board.
AANES has been teaching its curriculum since the academic year of 2015/2016. It was first applied from the first to third classes, and then to other grades in succession.
This year, examination of general certification will be held for the first time in Jazira region, at a time when the same experience was applied in Kobani and Afrin before 2018.
AANES education system requires focusing on mother tongues (Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac) in the first grades, then to add another local language subject in later grades and then the English language.
“Some terminologies in scientific subjects, especially physics, seemed difficult at first,” Rousim told North Press while flipping physics pages.
Meanwhile, she thanked her school and teachers, who helped her to full understand the scientific subjects, which she described as intensive, through providing extra classes and explanations.
Though schools were suspended for more than a month during the academic year of 2020/2021 as a result of the implementation of the complete lockdown against coronavirus, officials in the Directorate of Education say that they tried to compensate education loss through subjecting students to intensive courses.
The total number of students who will set their exams on June 6, is 11,000 including 7,000 preparatory students and 4,000 high school students, according to head of the Examination Committee of Education Board in the Jazira Region, Nour al-Din Muhammad said.
The students are distributed to 64 examination centers in four cities: Qamishli, Girke Lege, Derbasiya and Hasakah, according to the Examination Committee.
Nowadays, the Committee is busy equipping schools with logistical materials after exams’ cards were distributed to students of both certificates.
After passing the high school level, students are allowed to complete their studies at AANES’ universities, which are Rojava University in Qamishli, Kobani University in Kobani and al-Sharq University in Raqqa.
in 2018, the Turkish forces and their affiliated armed groups closed Afrin University after they invaded the city.
Meanwhile, teaching government curriculum in Jazira region is limited to several schools in the security squares in Qamishli and Hasakah, in addition to a few villages south of Qamishli.
Saleh al-Ali, supervisor of examination process of AANES schools in Hasakah, said that they have prepared 12 centers, each of which includes five examination halls.
“Supervisors, delegates, and observers of Education Board will carry out the examination process in the center,” he added.
In the cities of Hasakah and Derbasiya 1,500 preparatory students and 1,000 high school students will set their exams in a center in Hasakah.
Meanwhile, the left students will be distributed to centers in the cities of Qamishli and Girke Lege.
“During the examination, students are required to wear face masks, water bottles will be distributed for each of them, as physical distancing measures will be implemented,” al-Ali said.