RAQQA, Syria (North Press) Ala’ddin al-Ahmad, 30, did not send his children to school and is considering hiring a private tutor to teach them at home temporarily for fear of the flu which have recently killed some children.
Al-Ahmad, who hails from Raqqa, northern Syria, said that he fears his children would be infected with the flu especially with no preventive measures taken by schools.
On December 17, 2022, the Education Committee of Raqqa, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), suspended schools for a week due to the spread of the flu which has caused a few deaths among children. Later, they extended the suspension until January 1, 2023.
On Monday, the schools resumed education. However, the numbers of absent students increased in most schools according to teachers.
Al-Ahmad is concerned with overcrowding classrooms in Raqqa’s schools. The Schools’ Administration of the AANES had to implement a double-shift system to tackle the great numbers of students and lack of schools.
On September 25, 2022, an official of the Education Committee of the AANES’ Raqqa Civil Council said that the overcrowding in classrooms is holding back the education process where in a single classroom there are about 70 students.
Many schools were damaged while the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was fighting ISIS out of Raqqa. According to media reports, 80 percent of the city was destroyed.
Earlier, Khalaf Matar, co-chair of the Education Committee, said that they have opened 367 schools in Raqqa city and its countryside. The total number of schools in Raqqa is 524, of which 27 in the city and 31 in the countryside are completely destroyed and 122 need restoration.
Umm Muhammad, 30, who is from Raqqa, also did not send them to school for fears of the infection.
The woman, who is a mother of four, said that two of her children go to school. One of them was infected from a classmate and was very sick and had to stay in bed for a week.
Last week, an official in the AANES’ Health committee of Raqqa, said the recent flu that spread is the seasonal flu but all cases admitted to hospital show it is a more severe type of influenza.
“The results of the tests show it is type B influenza. It is seasonal and has spread in the region before,” he stated to North Press.
Nevertheless, the people of Raqqa are still concerned for their children. Salman al-Balikh, 32, who is from the village of Maaizila in the northern countryside of Raqqa, did not send his children to the city’s schools as he usually does.
Similar to other parents, he is concerned about death cases caused by the flu and the doctors’ statements of its dangerous effects on children and the great numbers of students in classrooms.