DAMASCUS (North Syria) – Lodi Muhammad, 37, a pseudonym for a woman from Syria’s capital Damascus, passes hours in teaching her child who faces difficulties in comprehending lessons at school.
Muhammad exerts efforts with her third-elementary-stage-child, a task that is assumed to be done by teachers at school.
Muhammad, who has journalism and English literature degrees, finds difficulties in bridging a gap to her child in curricula that depends mostly on deduction.
With the advent of the academic year which was commenced on September 4, Education Ministry of the Syrian government stated 3.600.000 students headed to 13.660 schools representing different stages.
Due to the economic deterioration in the whole of the country, students in areas under the Syrian government face difficulties in adapting to developed curricula that depend on cooperation, deduction and searching for a piece of information on the internet.
Muhammad finds curricula developed and modern ones notably since it depends of deduction that in turn incites the students to think “which teachers themselves ought to be trained” according to her viewpoint.
“There is a large section of curricula depends on listening, none a child has undergone listening lessons,’ she said.
Since the start of the war in Syria in 2011, the government curricula have been amended many times.
Views are differing on the issue, while some people say it is very far away from the reality of what was taken place in Syria, others support it be developed and changed.
Overcrowded classrooms
While parents presume it is the duty of teachers to make students comprehend, teaching staff find difficulties in bridging the gap in cooperative education due to lack of teaching tools and large number of students in a classroom compared to the number of teachers.
In the Tadamoun neighborhood in Damascus, Julnar Muhammad, 30, a pseudonym for a teacher, finds difficulties in controlling the class saying, “The new curricula is a good and a useful one. However, how could a teacher do his mission in a class having 40 male and female students?”
Julnar wonders “Some lessons need search on the internet, how could we assign a second stage student with such homework amid such hardships in living conditions?”
The teacher, among others, said they need continued training to polish their skills to deliver the process to the shore of success.
Responding to a question on whether all cadres are able to stand up to such developed curricula, a source within the Curricula Development Directorate said, on condition of anonymity, “There is a disparity between teachers, as in model schools curricula are taught properly, but not in all schools.”
However, Hanadi Ahmad, a pseudonym for a teacher, has never come across such a model school in the whole of Damascus where classrooms have nearly 40 students with disparity however from school to another.
In a school in Kafar Sousah in Damascus, Ahmad said there are 39 students in the classroom she teaches, “I do my utmost to make the process a success, but the big number of students impinges upon learning. We spend half classes in controlling the students.”
Haya Ali, a teacher in the western countryside of Homs, central Syria, said she has in the classroom she runs more than 30 male and female students. Even in this case, concentration is low as controlling students is a hard task, according to Ali.
Secondary and vocational educations
Difficulties facing basic education (preparatory up to ninth stage) are recapped in overcrowded classes and curricula that need logistic capabilities.
Today, the government heads to support and guide people to go for vocational education by providing equipment and finances.
Admission grades into vocational education covering oil, naval, trade and agriculture schools were raised. Admission into oil schools comes first according to lists of the Ministry of Education.
There were in late June more than 89.000 male and female students in the vocational education in areas under the control of the government, according to the ministry.
A decision was passed by the parliament hereby schools were turned into productive workshops. This notion was put into application during the Covid-19 pandemic where masks were produced and distributed to people last year.
A source from Syria Prime Ministry told North Press the government heads towards integrating dual vocational education in cooperation between education sector and business one by the result of which students could earn a salary from what they sell from their work at school.
Concerning the secondary stage, Muhammad Muhammad, 50, a mathematics teacher said, “Modern curricula are developed and good ones, but it needs more time for discussion notably for baccalaureate students. There is what it is called ‘withdrawal’ from school where students study at home with no obligation from the Education Ministry to keep them attend school until curricula is finished.”
Muhammad believes subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Geography and Arabic are very concentrated ones especially since curricula were made into deductive ones.
The teacher added that periodic tests and exams are very out-dated ones. The final exam at the third grade of the secondary stage should not be taken the model to decide the future of the students.
Private schools
Amid such overcrowdedness in schools, well-being parents register their children at private schools. Joud Muhammad, 35, from Damascus, paid 10 million Syrian pounds (SYP), up to $2.000, as an annuity for her four children in kindergarten up to third elementary stage.
The paid amounts are very high ones, but her children are well taught at schools with no assignments at home exhausting parents.
While Mazhar al-Saleh, 45, a pseudonym for a man from Damascus, pays nearly six million SYP for his three children besides the bus fees which cost a million for each child in an academic year.
There are tens of private schools in areas under the government’s control. Its admission fees differ from an area to another with none abiding to annuity set by the Education Ministry.
An exclusive source from the Ministry of Education said annuity at kindergartens differs from 150.000 SYP up to 300.000 SYP, according to the school grade.
While annuities at school of higher ages start from 600.000 SYP, it could reach five million at some secondary schools, according to the source.
Rafif Saqr, 40, a pseudonym for a teacher at a private school said the fame of the school, the number of students and language-related services are the basics that determine the level of annuity by paid.