Shafaq News- Suwayda

Thousands of students in Syria's southern province of Suwayda face an uncertain future as an unresolved dispute over schooling leaves them without ninth- or tenth-grade classes, education officials and parents told Shafaq News.

Education in the Druze-majority province has been caught up in administrative and political disputes since March, sources at Suwayda's education directorate said, describing what they called the politicization of schooling. With no tenth-grade classes open, and no ninth grade, the highest level of education effectively available in Suwayda is now eighth grade, they said. That means there will be no eleventh-grade next school year, and within a year the province’s university could have no first-year students.

"When this generation finds no school to go to, it will certainly turn to the street," one source warned.

The directorate sent several protest letters to the UN office in Damascus and met Claudio Cordone, the UN secretary-general's deputy special envoy for Syria, before the last round of national exams, the sources added. Cordone promised to work on solutions with Syria's Education Ministry, "but no response has followed."

For ninth-grade students, the directorate wrote to the Education Ministry, which referred the matter to the Secretariat-General of the Presidency, again without a reply, according to the sources. Some private schools tried to open tenth-grade classes, including the Mays private school, but their administrators received threats from unknown parties that stalled the efforts, another source at the directorate said.

Read more: Damascus’ Suwayda Roadmap: Fragile peace or prelude to autonomy?

Only about 4% of students managed to sit their exams in centers in the province's northern countryside and in rural Damascus, a source added. Those who could not are demanding a solution that guarantees equal opportunities for all.

The father of Jamal, a ninth-grader who sat and passed his exam outside the province, asked why students who did so should be left without tenth-grade classes in Suwayda. "I'm trying to rent a house in Jaramana in Damascus, so my son doesn't lose his future or a year of his life, despite the difficult economic situation, but I have no choice."

The mother of Dana, a top-performing ninth-grader, said she kept her daughter from sitting the exam in the northern countryside, both in solidarity with the many students who stayed away and out of fear for her safety, given the area's proximity to territory held by tribal and Bedouin groups. Her daughter was in no state to sit an exam surrounded by destroyed homes, she said.

Syrian education authorities did not comment on the situation.

Much of Suwayda remains outside the full control of Syria's transitional government, with local Druze authorities and armed groups controlling large parts of the province.

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