Turkey to provide education in Arabic for refugees, to accept opposition certificates

Free Syrian students Union stated via social media that the Turkish Government would accept the Syrian Students who got the high school certificate in rebel-held areas under the supervision of opposition National coalition in its universities and educational institutions.

 Turkey is responding to the needs of tens of thousands of Syrian refugee, especially the children by providing them with education in their mother-tongue Arabic, according to World Bulletin.

 Currently there are almost half a million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Syrian refugee children who already know Turkish have been able to benefit from public schools in Turkey. However, the Turkish government is now addressing the problem of Syrian refugee children who don’t know Turkish by providing them with education in Arabic. Kademoon schools in Istanbul are set to open on Monday. Already 6000 children have registered.

 The government has prepared 55 schools across the country have been catering for Syrian refugee children in Turkey. They have employed Syrian school teachers to teach the children in their own language. Of these 55 schools, three of them are found in Istanbul’s Zeytinburnu, Bagcilar and Esenler, with 2000 students each.

Alongside the government, the Syrian Education Services and Consultation Association has been working to secure the right to education for Syrian living in Turkey since July 2012. Having come toTurkey with his family from Syria thirty years ago, the head of the association Ola Baghajati Ragipoglu said that last year the association recruited 1000 students, and that in the coming years they aiming for a ten-fold increase.

 Commenting on the children’s progress, Ragipoglu said ‘’At first they were all drawing pictures of guns, injuries, blood and ruined buildings. By the end of the year this changed. We want to give these children the right to say ‘how lucky we are for Turkey looking after us’. They will be our future ambassadors in improving Syrian-Turkish relations.’’

 Speaking to Turkey’s Zaman newspaper, Syrian refugee child Yasir Hellaf, 6, said ‘I love Turkey but when the war ends I want to turn back to my country. We ran away from the sound of bombs and guns. We went to Egypt but then war broke out there. Now I am very excited to be starting school here.’ 

 Syria's conflict began in March 2011 largely as peaceful protests against Assad's rule. It escalated into a civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

 More than 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to Syrian Human rights NGO's and 2 million Syrians, including one million children, have been forced to flee to neighboring countries, the United Nations says.