Educational alienation threatens future of thousands of students returning to Afrin

With the return of three convoys of IDPs Afrin city, the issue of the future of thousands of returning students re-emerges, amid the problem of differing curricula between what they received during the years of the Syrian crisis and displacement within the schools of the DAA and the curricula currently adopted in their return areas, in the absence of decisive official decisions regarding certificate equivalency or educational integration mechanisms.

During the years of displacement to the Shahba regions and North and East Syria, thousands of students received their education according to the curricula of the DAA, which adopted Kurdish alongside Arabic. However, these students now face a completely different educational reality upon their return, with new curricula that include differences in language and content, in addition to the teaching of other languages in some schools, including mandatory Turkish.

A teacher in the region, who preferred to remain anonymous, pointed out that most of the returning students have not yet enrolled in schools at the primary, middle, and high school levels due to the lack of clear plans for their reintegration. Meanwhile, a number of university students who studied at universities such as Rojava and Kobani have returned to their seats to continue their studies.

An eleventh-grade student named Sidar, who returned with her family in one of the waves of IDPs, says she was unable to join school due to the differences in curricula and imposed languages. She indicated that she finds it difficult to follow the lessons and struggles to understand, which makes her consider temporarily stopping her studies.

Educational specialists believe that this transition between different curricula does not merely represent an educational change, but rather constitutes a disruption in the students' educational trajectory, creating a psychological and cognitive gap between them and the new school environment, especially for those who started their education entirely within the DAA curricula.

According to previous statistics from the Education and Teaching Authority in the Autonomous Administration, there were about 318 schools in the city of Afrin before the displacement in 2018, accommodating around 50,000 students, supervised by more than 3,700 teachers and staff. The educational process was later reorganized in the displacement areas to include more than 14,000 students, before these students were displaced again in 2024 toward North and East Syria to continue their education.

Previous data also indicate that Afrin experienced a different educational experience in the years leading up to the displacement, characterized by the opening of schools, institutes, and the University of Afrin, which adopted teaching in Kurdish and Arabic, in addition to specialized educational institutions. However, the educational process was affected and changed due to the Turkish occupation's attacks and the ongoing occupation to this day.

Educational sources say that the parties concerned with the education and integration file, whether in the DAA or the temporary government bodies, are discussing the possibility of addressing the file in subsequent meetings, without any clear implementation mechanisms or official timetable issued so far, leaving the future of returning students open to multiple possibilities.

Amid the differences in curricula and the absence of decisive decisions, the most pressing question for parents and students remains: How will a generation that started its education in a completely different educational context be integrated when it returns to find itself facing an imposed different educational system?.

ANHA