After six years of studying their mother tongue, which they have been deprived of in Syria for decades, the children of Afrin return to the place of departure, and now they must study the language of the country which occupies their lands, seize their property, loot, steal and abandon his people.
The secondary school examination program organized by the “local council of the city of Afrin” – an administrative structure created in 2018 after Turkish control over the city and including members loyal to Turkey – required students to submit Turkish language exams, while Kurds were absent from studies and exams.
In general, the Turkish footprint is clearly visible in the service sectors in the northern countryside of Aleppo governorate, and its repercussions have emerged in educational aspects in a broad and private way, despite the existence of a spontaneous response to through which northern Syria seeks to preserve the original cultural character of the region.
Turkey has full control over the educational process in its areas of direct influence in northern Syria, although the programs prevailing in schools there are the same as those of the “interim government”, which were modified from the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Education programs and materials have been added to the Turkish language. However, these programs involved changes in certain political content and references, especially in the subjects of history and geography, because they contain “errors” from the Turkish point of view, because, for example, all the words referring to “the Ottoman occupation” have been removed and replaced by an “Ottoman” rule, In addition, Turkish lessons have been opened in schools, and educational staff and students are required to attend.
Turkey is trying to implement its education system in these areas, which was confirmed by Alireza Alton El, director of the “Lifelong Learning” program at the Turkish Ministry of Education, in an interview with the newspaper “Asharq Al-Awsat” in September 2019, as he stated that “the ministry is working to transfer education experience to Turkey, in particular the e-learning system in the regions of the Shield” Euphrates in a short period of time.
These regions include around 500 schools, in which around 150,000 students study, according to statements by the Turkish Ministry of Education.
In turn, the educational services of the Free Aleppo Governorate Council made the decision last year to include the Turkish language in primary and secondary school curricula. In addition, many schools bear the names of the Turkish names, in connection with those killed in certain battles during the operation “Shield of the Euphrates”, as well as by bringing together the flags of the Revolution and of Turkey on the covers of the school “evacuations”.
Sudden announcement and shock of students
High school students were shocked by the date of the exam for the current academic year 2020 after the announcement by the Turkish Ministry of Education on June 21, and the distribution of the exam program which was to be postponed in because of the “Corona crisis” where the direct educational process stopped on March 13 without the end of the Decision study program.
Despite the continuation of learning by alternative means and the adoption of distance education to compensate for the shortfall, the program was not completed and many pupils were unable to take their decisions for technical reasons and their belief in alternative solutions, including postponing high school exams until school returns or adding new deletions that include all the lessons they haven’t received. Directly at school.
