Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the classroom would expose the weak points in Syria’s tenuous unity in the rush to rewrite its destiny.
The declaration that Syria’s new leadership was preparing to make significant changes to the country’s educational curriculum was met with widespread indignation. The reforms were interpreted by some who were suspicious of the rebel leaders who overthrew the Assad government last month as a sign that they intended to impose an Islamist ideology in the nation’s schools and other institutions.
Syria’s education ministry shared 16 pages of planned curriculum revisions on Facebook on Wednesday, the first day of the new year, in an announcement of the changes.
Less shocking were some of the modifications, such the elimination of all allusions to the overthrown ruler Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad.
Others, however, provoked immediate criticism.
The names and pictures of pre-Islamic deities were to be eliminated from the high school curriculum, as were all references to Queen Zenobia, the pre-Islamic monarch of the ancient city of Palmyra. The term “the brave one who defends the homeland” was changed to “for the sake of Allah” in the third-grade Islamic education textbook.
The announcement caused a great deal of anxiety.
Erasing historical facts and events from our people’s struggles, stations from the history of ancient civilizations, and irrational changes to all subjects in the curriculum are indicators and steps, not coincidences, Syrian writer and human rights activist Rima Flihan wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. Of course, it makes sense to remove glorification of the fallen regime and related concepts.
And this is where the risk is, Flihan, a former member of the Syrian National Coalition, remarked, perhaps referencing worries that have infused the cautious optimism of Syrians nationwide since the removal of Assad, especially among the country’s numerous religious and ethnic minorities.
A day later, the education ministry indicated, however, that curricula would not change much, at least not until specialist committees could be established to examine and evaluate them.
Whether this was a reaction to growing public indignation was not immediately apparent. Syrian writer and researcher Hossam Jazmati shared his version of events with NBC News on Friday, saying it was a rash move and they backed off from it.
“What has been done to the curricula is the removal of certain paragraphs, not an amendment,” stated Education Minister Nazir al-Qadri in a statement to NBC News. Students are still enrolled in the same courses, which have not been altered. There is nothing wrong with what has been changed, according to those who closely examine the altered terms linguistically.
According to Al-Qadri, “what was deleted is what glorifies the former regime and its followers.” “Changes and amendments to the curriculum will only occur after the situation in Syria stabilizes,” he continued. As of right now, just specific phrases have been removed; no amendments have been made. There is a big difference between removing a few paragraphs and making a complete overhaul.
Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the rebel organization that spearheaded the collapse of the Assad administration, is Syria’s de facto leader. He has pledged to establish an inclusive and representative society as the foundation for Syria’s future.
However, the group’s history of extremism has raised concerns, and it is unclear if Sharaa and his interim government will follow through on their promise to convince Western countries to remove crippling sanctions on Syria that targeted the Assad regime. Sharaa has stated that new elections in Syria could take up to four years.
The outcry over the curriculum, according to Jazmati, who has written extensively about Sharaa, reflected the chaos at the top of the pyramid in Damascus as the rebel leadership tries to hold onto power while transforming the nation in what has essentially become a trial-and-error process.
Last month, opposition factions quickly overthrew the Assad administration following over ten years of civil war. According to Jazmati, their leaders have now been entrusted with enormous and surprising duties.
He claimed that there is a lot of experimentation and ongoing adaption.
The extent to which Syria’s new leadership conferred with representatives of the nation’s diverse populations before proposing the education system reforms is unknown. However, Jazmati surmised that it was probably not much, considering how quickly Syria’s interim administration has attempted to implement new reforms.
Sharaa has been balancing the demanding duty of representing Syria’s new leadership on the world scene with governing a nation that has been destroyed by years of violent dictatorship and civil conflict. On Friday, he met with the first high-level European delegation, which included the foreign ministers of Germany and France.
Sharaa’s history as a jihadist leader with ties to both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State terrorist organization has complicated all of that.
It is unclear what his actual goals are for Syria and if he will be able to carry them out. The country’s youth textbooks might provide a clue.
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