Siraj al-Shami, an activist in the field of education, observes the situation in Northern Syria, a week after he reached Idlib as a displaced person from Eastern Ghouta. He participated in a conference addressing an experimental project to develop the educational environment, organized by “Violet” Organization, on (Thursday)April 5, in the city of Idlib in cooperation with the International “Save the Children” in Turkey and Norway.  

Siraj said that the conference has proposed new worthwhile ideas, which must be implemented, considering that a single foundation cannot develop the educational environment, and that it is important for the entities in the area to coordinate their efforts to raise the quality of education.

Siraj also pointed out that teachers must focus on their profession for it is a “message” not a mere occupation, stressing that teachers’ support might be cut or minimized, and students might be distorted and might lose their connection with education. So, it is important to continue the educational process and to highlight that the students’ interests are a major goal for teachers.

The project’s Manager Ammar Jamalo said that the work is being done through stages, starting with defining the situation, the schools and the targeted sample, then training, to be followed with data collection, analysis, planning and implementation, reaching the phase of follow up and results’ valuation.

Jamalo said that, during the conference, polls have been collected, including the opinions of the committees concerned with education, as “to overcome the errors which faced the project during the experimental phase,” pointing out that “the project is experimental, seeking to spot the organizations and people’s reactions”.

The project focused on studying the reality of the children’s situation in the schools through targeting samples in five schools managed by “Violet” in the western countryside of Aleppo and the Northern countryside of Idlib and Salqin’s camps.

Siraj, the educational activist, believes that “raising the teachers’ moral and behavioral efficiency and supporting them to dedicate their time to develop their performance positively impacts the students, being the axis of the educational process.”

The educational sector in Idlib is fragmented between many sides, facing a number of obstacles, on top of which are the absence of the unified educational curricula and the lack of an official entity to support the educational sector and to provide stable salaries for the teachers and schools’ employees, in addition to the increasing intervention on the part of the military bodies in the area.