Damascus Ministry of Education ends Alawite Teachers’ contracts via WhatsApp

The Ministry of Education, affiliated with the Syrian Interim Government, ended the assignments of contracted teachers of Alawite origin through a WhatsApp message circulated by supervisors to school administrations, without any official document bearing a signature, number, or date.

The message received by our agency instructed the administrations of Primary Cycle 1 and 2 schools to terminate the assignments of contracts appointed as administrators from outside the province. The instructions noted that no administrator under the mentioned contracts may remain in their position and that every contract appointed in a teaching capacity but assigned administrative duties should continue until further instructions are issued.

The teachers on five-year contracts, who were asked to receive the termination notice, said: "We, the teachers of five-year contracts, address our voice to the Ministry of Education and the Syrian public. Our professional path has turned into a series of contradictory decisions that shake our stability and contradict the principles of administrative justice."

The teachers considered it “very inappropriate that a termination decision for Alawite employees is issued verbally,” noting that such actions reflect a lack of experience and understanding of administrative work by the new officials, most of whom are from Idlib and hold no academic qualifications.

They added: "After years of dedication and service, and after being transferred collectively to their provinces, we now face an unjust decision to dismiss us after two days of being asked to renew our contracts and travel between provinces for that, as if the decision-makers are targeting Alawite employees, since the vast majority of contracted teachers are from the honorable Alawite community."

The teachers pointed out that they participated in competitions in provinces other than their own due to a lack of vacancies in their home provinces. After three years, an official decision was issued to assign them to their residential provinces, and in the fourth year, they were collectively transferred with their personal and financial records to real positions.

The teachers confirmed that these procedures constitute “administrative and legal recognition of their new functional centers, but the huge contradiction reflects a lack of experience and sense of responsibility. How can personal and financial records be officially transferred for thousands of teachers, and then they are told that the central office did not approve the transfer? How can they be asked to go back to square one after years of relative stability? Who causes family breakdowns, human suffering, and wastes years of experience and stability, replacing them with employees from Idlib and elsewhere under the name of revolutionary staff, even if they are illiterate?”

They questioned who was responsible for asking them to move to their provinces, then asking them to renew contracts, and then sending an illegal text message to receive the termination notice from their schools.

The teachers emphasized that their demands focus on renewing contracts in the workplaces where they were officially settled, holding responsible parties accountable for administrative contradictions, stopping arbitrary administrative actions that ignore human and professional conditions, and adopting job stability as a basic right for teachers.

They added that they have families depending on official ministry decisions, and administrative decisions cannot be tossed around at the expense of their stability and dignity.

The teachers expressed astonishment at the official and government silence regarding their situation, saying: "We want a solution; this is injustice! We transferred by ministerial decision, so how can a ministerial decision be canceled based on a deleted article of the Employee Law? We haven’t seen the decision, the article, or the number... everyone is silent and lying to us... we know the truth, but we need someone to hear our voice."

ANHA