Students: No logic in studying in one language while learning in another

The reactions against the decision of the Ministry of Education in the Syrian transitional government to teach Kurdish language three times a week persist amongst Kurdish students and their parents in Hasakah Governorate.

In this regard, the Kurdish students and their parents in the city of Jal Agha, al-Jazira region, have voiced their refusal of the decision in an interview with the ANHA news agency.

Student Zamzam Mohammad indicated that since she started her education, she has been studying in her mother tongue Kurdish. She stressed that she cannot accept to learn in any other language but her native language. She described it as a natural right for herself and all members of the Kurdish nation.

Zamzam called on the Ministry of Education in the transitional government to suspend and repeal the decision, or amend it in a way that guarantees their rights as students and as members of the Kurdish people to receive their education in their mother tongue.

For her part, student Nisreen Ramadan said that the Ministry of Education’s decision to allocate only three classes to learning in Kurdish is unacceptable. She affirmed her rejection of the decision and called for the entire curriculum to be taught in Kurdish, as it is their mother tongue. She noted that they would not be able to develop and learn effectively in a language other than their mother tongue.

Third-grade student Aras Ramadan said: “Three classes in Kurdish are not enough for us, and we will not be able to study or understand in Arabic. We want our curriculum to be in our Kurdish language, and the Ministry of Education must respond to our demands.”

Student Lilan Safo said: “We have no objection to having one or two classes in Arabic to improve our knowledge of the language. However, our entire school curriculum should be in Kurdish because we understand and absorb information better in our mother tongue, the language we speak in our daily lives. This is our natural right.”

She added: “Why do all peoples learn in the language they speak in their daily lives and at home, while we, the Kurdish people, are treated differently? We have our own language, which expresses our existence and distinguishes us from other peoples, and we want to learn in it as well. It makes no sense for me to speak one language in my daily life and with my parents, while studying in another language at school. This is unfair. The Ministry of Education should listen to our demands and revoke its decision.”

As for the parents, on behalf of Mazloum Karki who was martyred during the demonstration and being the father of one of the students, Siamand Mohammed gave an expression of his backing to the students’ demands. It is because learning in Kurdish is a natural right of their children, and they should be able to get their education in their mother tongue just as other nations can do in theirs.

Further, he stated that the mother tongue is the basis on which the existence of peoples depends, and the Kurds should have the right to survive and maintain their nationality through learning and freely speaking their mother tongue without any policies of denial, assimilation, and genocide which were committed against them for decades. It is due to the fact that Kurdish families made the sacrifice of their children for freedom so that their children could get education in their mother tongue without any limitations.

He continued by saying that the issue goes beyond simply maintaining education in the Kurdish language. Its status must also be safeguarded as a second national language alongside Arabic in Syria, through constitutionally and legally enshrining this recognition, so that Kurds can preserve and protect their language from attempts at assimilation and denial.

Siamand Mohammed concluded by emphasizing that the Kurdish people are following the path of their martyrs and their aspirations, and that preserving the Kurdish language is one of their goals. He noted that students’ families and the families of martyrs stand alongside the demands of their children, who continue to protest and reject the Ministry of Education’s decision. They are adding their voices to those of their children in rejecting the ministry’s decision to limit Kurdish-language instruction to only three classes per week.

ANHA