Syria school curriculum proposal sparks international concern
The new Syrian Government has planned to revise the national school curriculum, sparking widespread concern. Critics are arguing these new changes reflect a more Islamic orientation. According to The National on January 3rd, the transitional government’s education ministry has shared via Facebook their proposed changes for each age group.
These changes will include the reinterpretation of a Quranic verse about people who angered God and strayed, explicitly defining them as “Jews and Nasara”,this being a derogatory term towards Christians.
The proposed changes will apply to all schoolchildren aged from six to 18. Changes relating to the removal of content glorifying Assad have been praised online, although some adjustments like the religious chapter modifications have caused widespread outrage on social media.
Additionally, changes will involve removing poetry themed around love and women, and removing a chapter on the origins and evolution of life.”
These changes will also redefine the word “martyr” from someone who died for their homeland to an explicitly religious interpretation of the word as someone who has sacrificed themselves “for the sake of God”. As well as this, the phrase “defending the nation” will be replaced by “defending Allah”.
Although Syrian students under Bashar Al Assad received a solid, fairly secular education, particularly in mathematics, physics and other sciences, Syrian political scientist Azzam Al Kassir has stated the previous education system “also served as a tool for ideological indoctrination, designed to propagate the regime’s narrative and normalise its political agenda”.
Recently, Al Shara has sought to distance HTS from Al Qaeda, suggesting his new government will be based upon values of tolerance, freedom, and inclusivity.
Previously there were many references to Bashar Al Assad and his father throughout educational system, these references were argued to link directly to “political objectives and propaganda” touted by the previous government.
READ: Syria: Ensuring the rights of girls to education
Syria’s school curriculum changes spark national concerns
Users have questioned why an interim government needs to amend the curriculum, others have rejected what they perceived as attempts to remove parts of the country’s history.
In a statement the Minister of Education Nazir Al Qadri seeks to clarify the rationale behind the changes. He states:
“The curricula in all Syrian schools will remain as is until specialised committees are formed to review and audit” them, he said. “We have only ordered the deletion of parts glorifying the defunct Assad regime, and we have adopted pictures of the Syrian Revolution flag instead of the defunct regime flag.”
In addition, a specialised committee looking into the education system will likely be formed via the Syria National Dialogue Conference later this month.
Experts on the MENA region agree that the proposed revisions of the education system, along with the speed of the process are somewhat concerning.
According to The National, Ms Aldoughli, who conducted research on education and life under the rule of HTS in Idlib in 2019, warns that this may be a case of history repeating itself. “The caretaker government didn’t come up with this now, or even recently, they went back to what was being taught in Idlib.”
It is also unclear whether these changes are legally founded. Ms Aldoughli went on to say “It’s quite dangerous and disappointing to see the caretaker government making these changes at such an early time, before even we have the national conference … These changes should take place after consensus over how and what type of political system we will have in the future.”
The National
