RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Hammadi tries to explain to his students how a volcano erupts, but he has no tools. After a long search he finds a piece of chalk, the best available tool in the current situation.
The teacher draws a volcano and names earth layers and how it erupts. However, he erases what he has already drawn and written, owing to limited space of the “fractured” blackboard.
40-year-old Hammadi al-Khalaf, a teacher at the school of al-Kalta, north of Raqqa, says he has no teaching tools to help explain and make the educational process easier for students.
Schools in the countryside of Raqqa suffer from lack of basic tools that could make education process a successful one. This has been the case since five years.
The teacher voices his disappointment over the current situation at the school, adding, “We will not reach the required level,” due to unavailable needed tools.
The school, Hammadi teaches at, lacks desks which compels his to seat more than three pupils on one desk.
“We use chalk and we write on old-style blackboards,” Hamadi says as his schools lack new whiteboards.
Hamadi’s problems are not limited to these ones; there are no enough copies of textbooks to cover all pupils, aiding tools such as maps and anatomical models such as a skeleton that makes the education process easier and a more successful.
He said the education process is not a healthy one.
Teachers exert many efforts due to large numbers of pupils and the lack of fully-fledged schools in addition to schools that need rehabilitation and meet basic education needs.
According to the Education Committee in Raqqa schools are overcrowded which obstructs the process to be a model one. In some classes there are 70 male/female pupils.
Due to battles erupted between various parties, 58 schools are fully destroyed in the city and its countryside and 122 others are in need of rehabilitation, according to the committee.
All in all, there are 524 schools in Raqqa, 367 are commissioned by the committee this year.
Several schools in Raqqa were damaged during the expulsion of Islamic State Organization (ISIS) at the hands of Syrian Democratic forces (SDF) supported by the US-led Global Coalition, as 80% of the city was destroyed, according to media outlets.
The Education Committee in the city opened 367 schools in Raqqa and its countryside, as the total number of schools in Raqqa is 524 schools, including 27 completely destroyed ones in the city, 31 ones in the countryside.
Zulaikha Abdi, Co-chair of Education Committee in Raqqa, said the education field needs support from NGOs and those support the Educating process.
Abdi stressed that the committee does not have capabilities to rehabilitate damaged schools or build new ones.
Schools in Raqqa need massive support to secure needed requirements, including the textbooks, which are provided by the UNICEF that does not met educational need of pupils, according to Abdi.
She highlighted inaction by NGOs regarding hygiene in schools as lice and skin diseases are widely spread in the area.
Regarding the same suffering, Muhammad al-Saleh, Principle of Tel al-Samen School in the countryside of Raqqa, said the schools lack basic tools and needs of an appropriate schooling.
Al-Saleh says they are short staffed. The school has 16 classes with just 13 teachers available. Even public facilities are not served in the school, according to al-Saleh who puts the blame on concerned bodies and lack of capabilities.
He noted, “There are only two toilets in the school.”
Al-Saleh also calls on concerned bodies to pay much attention to the schools in the area and rehabilitate schools, provide tools and hire more teachers.