Deir Ezzor – Obadah al-Sheikh
The areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) have witnessed protests renewed with the beginning of the new school year, rejecting the curriculum that AANES is trying to impose on educational institutions in the region.
The parents’ rejection stems from the curriculum containing materials they considered offensive to religion and the culture of the region, which caused resignations in the educational sector and parents expelling employees of educational institutions affiliated with AANES from schools.
AANES started circulating its new curriculum from the city of Manbij, east of Aleppo, but protests erupted rejecting this change, which ended with the expulsion of AANES’ representatives.
Deletion of subjects and imposing Kurdish language
Hussein al-Rawi, a teacher in a school east of Deir Ezzor, opposes the AANES curriculum based on a set of criteria, the first of which is that the educational staff has not reviewed the new curriculum after modification, as well as the people involved in discussing the curriculum do not have the qualifications to prepare curricula, according to his statements to Enab Baladi.
He added that the curriculum is scientifically poor according to the educational plan issued by the Education and Learning Authority, with the English language and biology subjects being removed from the lower grades, as well as the removal of the Islamic education subject, which left a bad impression on the intentions of AANES.
The teacher also said that AANES did not stop at removing essential subjects from the curriculum but is working on imposing the Kurdish language, which he views as not beneficial for the students and adds no educational value to them.
He added to Enab Baladi that students learn English at the beginning of school, and French is added during the preparatory grades because these are global languages that might benefit the student in the future, which is not the case with the Kurdish language, aside from the fact that there are no specialists to teach this language.
The Genealogy issue
Radwan al-Jassim, an elementary school teacher in Raqqa, believes that the imposition of AANES curriculum with the Genealogy subject (Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche) for secondary education, the imposition of the Kurdish language, and the removal of Islamic education is an “attempt to distance the student from their language and religion and to plant ideas incompatible with their societal culture.”
He described in his conversation with Enab Baladi the removal of Islamic education as a “serious matter,” noting the necessity of handling it and re-incorporating the subject, emphasizing the importance of providing a curriculum compatible with societal culture.
On his part, Imran al-Salman, a mathematics teacher in Deir Ezzor, considers the curriculum “extremely lacking” in educational value, indicating that some lessons do not exceed a single page, while others could span a whole unit without any clear objective.
He added to Enab Baladi that in the case of the mathematics book, lessons might end before the first semester, and there is no teacher’s guide or additional resources to make up for the lack.
Al-Salman mentioned that AANES did not provide sufficient copies to meet the students’ needs, often distributing one copy for every ten students.
The educational sector in northeastern Syria suffers from several challenges, prominently a shortage of educational staff and a lack of a suitable environment for the educational process, facing annual protests rejecting the curriculum that AANES tries to impose.
What is the Genealogy subject?
AANES curriculum includes several elements considered problematic by the residents of northeastern Syria, such as a map of Kurdistan that includes parts of Syria, as well as quotes attributed to the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, introducing him as a philosopher.
This resulted in criticism from the parents, escalating to anger when AANES began discussing the elimination of religious education and adopted the Genealogy subject in the curriculum.
Noufa Ali, a member of the Genealogy Center affiliated with the AANES in Qamishli, said to Enab Baladi that the Autonomous Administration was keen on spreading Genealogy science programs and introducing it locally through communes (neighborhood chiefs) and councils, but it was restricted to those over the age of 20.
It was necessary to establish programs and tasks targeting a larger segment of society, especially the teenage group corresponding to secondary education, which is a crucial phase for equipping students with the sciences, skills, and positive attitudes that shape their personalities, along with some gender concepts and introduction to women’s studies and history, benefiting society and the nation as well.
AANES included the Genealogy scientific subject in the high school curricula only, while there is a proposal to integrate the subject into preparatory curricula as well, in addition to specialized curricula studied at the Genealogy Faculty at the University of Rojava since 2017.
Ali believes that Genealogy is not less significant than other sciences, as it provides an explanation of the acquired knowledge about women, society, the universe, and all aspects of life, aiming thereby to “create a generation capable of building a moral society according to the principles of participatory life.”
What is the new curriculum?
In May, the Curriculum Authority affiliated with the Autonomous Administration announced its intention to renew and replace the curricula for primary, preparatory, and secondary school levels, including revisions of Arabic and Kurdish curricula.
Hawar News Agency, which is close to the Autonomous Administration, reported that Darshin Khalil, an official at the Curriculum Institution, stated that the institution has reviewed all textbooks, taking into account the suggestions of teachers and students.
In the first phase, curricula for the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth grades will be replaced, with this change set to be completed in summer 2024 and implemented from the academic year 2024–2025.
Education continues in the second, fifth, eighth, and eleventh grades according to the current curriculum, with these grades’ curricula set to be replaced in the second phase, during the 2025–2026 academic year.
In the third phase, curricula for the third, sixth, ninth, and Baccalaureate will be replaced according to the changes made in the second phase, to be completed in summer 2026 and implemented during the 2026–2027 academic year.