Exceptional exams decree for Sweida students, with uncertainty over implementation

Syrian Transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued Decree No. 163 of 2026, granting students in Suwayda Governorate an exceptional exam session to sit for the Basic Education and General Secondary Education certificate exams in all branches, under the same rules and conditions set for the regular exams.

The decree covers students who did not sit the 2026 exams or were unable to take all the required subjects, in what the government said was an effort to give them another opportunity to complete their exams and avoid losing an academic year.

However, the decree did not clearly specify where the exceptional exams would be held, raising questions over whether they would take place inside Suwayda Governorate or at the centers previously designated by the Ministry of Education outside the governorate.

Before the 2026 certificate exams began, the Ministry of Education had decided to move Suwayda students’ exams to centers in the Damascus countryside rather than hold them inside the governorate, citing security conditions and the need to provide students with a safe and stable examination environment.

The decision at the time sparked widespread objections among students and parents, who said that moving the exams outside Suwayda placed additional security, financial and logistical burdens on them amid the circumstances affecting the governorate. Local and educational bodies called for the exams to be held inside Suwayda or for an exceptional solution to be found to ensure students’ right to sit for the exams.

Hawar News Agency (ANHA) documented protests and sit-ins by students and residents of Suwayda, who called for the decision to relocate the exam centers to be reconsidered and for students to be given an examination opportunity that takes into account the circumstances that prevented large numbers of them from reaching the designated centers outside the governorate.

The data accompanying the main examination session indicate that large numbers of Suwayda students were unable to sit for the exams, prompting growing calls for an exceptional session to allow them to make up for the exams they missed.

What does “the same rules and conditions” mean?

The decree stipulates that the exceptional examination session will be held under the same rules and conditions applicable to the general examinations. However, it does not clarify whether this refers only to the examination regulations currently in force, or whether it also includes the procedures and examination centres previously designated by the ministry for students in Suwayda.

The absence of a clear specification regarding the location of the examinations leaves an important aspect of the decision open to interpretation and raises questions, particularly since the main problem faced by Suwayda students during the previous examination session was not limited to the curriculum or examination regulations. It also involved the location of the examination centres and the difficulty of reaching centres outside the province.

The Ministry of Education is expected to provide further details on the exceptional session, including the dates, examination centres, registration procedures and the students eligible to take part. These details will ultimately determine how effectively the decision can address the issue that prevented Suwayda students from participating in the 2026 examination session.

ANHA