Derik students protest for right to Kurdish-language education

Hundreds of students from schools in the city of Derik took part in a protest march this morning, demanding their right to education in their mother tongue, calling for Kurdish to be enshrined as an official language in the Syrian constitution, and rejecting a decision by the Ministry of Education in the transitional government limiting Kurdish-language instruction in schools to just three classes per week.

The students gathered outside the city’s Educational Complex, demanding full guarantees of their right to receive education in Kurdish, before heading to the Derik District Directorate to present their demands to the relevant authorities.

As they made their way to the directorate, the students met with District Director Shiro Shiro. They called for their right to education in Kurdish to be guaranteed, rejected the restriction of Kurdish-language instruction to three classes per week, and stressed the need to adopt Kurdish as a language of instruction to ensure students can study in their mother tongue.

For his part, Derik District Director Shiro Shiro said the directorate would convey the students’ demands to the relevant authorities and fulfill its responsibilities regarding education in Kurdish.

The march concluded with students chanting slogans calling for their right to Kurdish-language education to be guaranteed and for the language to be firmly established within the education system.

A-H 

ANHA