The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

After reducing the support for education sector in Idlib, the Syrians face ignorance by group volunteer work

Based on the importance and continuity of education and in conjunction with the lack of support for this sector which almost led to its suspension, civic parties and popular action emerged supporting it as much as possible, and in this context, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored an initiative launched by residents in Maarrat al-Nu’man city south of Idlib, which is a campaign called “Education Support Fund” to raise funds from within and the city’s people and abroad.

Maarrat al-Nu’man city is one of the largest cities in Idlib, and only about third of its population remained, who are estimated at 40000 people, most of them of the displaced people, the city has 21 schools still in service and receive students from primary until high school, these schools have 10000 students receiving education in schools that have been repeatedly restored because of the bombing they suffered.

According to what the Syrian Observatory monitored, the suspension of support hit the salaries of 250 teachers in Maarrat al-Nu’man, and in turn, those responsible of the city’s “education support fund” provided grants for last October, the grants included 225 teachers in 18 schools, the total was 5,721,500 Syrian Pound (five million seven hundred twenty one thousand and five hundred Syrian Pounds), each teacher received 25,000 Syrian pounds which is ($28) at the time, and in the following month, the participation and interaction with the campaign increased and reached a total of 7620,000 SYP (Seven million six hundred and twenty thousand Syrian pounds), and each teacher received 39,000 Syrian pounds or $43 at the time.

In a similar act, the local council in Orem al-Kubra city west of Aleppo, distributed a sealed envelope contains 5000 SYP to 110 teachers, the council announced that it paid it out of its allocations, and despite the small amount of no more than $6 that are not enough for the prices of coffee used daily in the offices of the organizations; the people saw it as an encouraging start for larger campaigns so that their children would not stop studying.

Moving to the densely populated border camps, the teachers preferred to continue the educational process in the simplest way, by renting houses and turning them into a school like in the Atma camps north of Idlib, in addition to establishing schools in large tents to accommodate large numbers of children, in order for teachers to complete the educational process.

Speaking of Idlib province and the countryside around it, most schools have become outside of the support of the organizations, and most pf the teachers are poorly paid or do not get paid at all since the beginning of the school year.

The suspension of support from the education sector was accompanied by several media campaigns that helped attract support for part of the schools of the Syrian north, while these campaigns have been absent from the border towns and cities of the border areas, which are considered relatively safe and are the home to tens of thousands of displaced people.