Shafaq News- Damascus

Presidential adviser Mazloum Abdi on Tuesday urged Kurdish families in Syria’s Al-Hasakah province to continue sending their children to Kurdish-medium schools, calling mother-tongue education a basic right.

In a video message marking the new school year, Abdi said Kurds had spent the past 14 years developing Kurdish-language education despite the war.

He said efforts over the past year and eight months had sought formal recognition for Kurdish within Syria’s education system and that talks with Damascus eventually led to an Education Ministry decision expanding Kurdish-language teaching.

The measure, however, drew protests from students and parents who said it did not go far enough. Abdi called for Kurdish-medium education to continue during the transitional period, saying measures were being taken to address difficulties facing students who had previously studied in Kurdish. He said children would also learn Arabic while continuing their Kurdish education.

Read more: Kurds in Syria: From marginalization to a defining political force

Al-Hasakah Education Director Adnan Barri said Kurdish is now taught as a subject from first grade through the final year of secondary school in Kurdish-majority cities. Schools in villages and other areas with Kurdish residents may also offer it, he said.

Barri said the Kurdish textbooks currently in use are the same as those previously used in Autonomous Administration schools and have been approved by the Education Ministry.

He said the current arrangement applies to this academic year and that a Kurdish Language Foundation and an Education Ministry committee are translating history, geography and philosophy textbooks for secondary students, along with history, geography and activity materials for middle-school students.

The translation work is expected to be completed within four to five days, he added.

On August 27, Syria’s Education Ministry expanded Kurdish-language instruction under the implementation rules for Decree No. 13 of 2026.

The decision provides three Kurdish-language classes a week plus one activities class in public and private schools in areas with significant Kurdish populations. During the first academic year, students may also choose to study social studies, history, geography, and philosophy in either Arabic or Kurdish.

Read more: Syria expands Kurdish education ahead of new school year