(Eqtsad)- In a war-torn country, the capital remained the least affected region during the seven year- war in Syria, making it a haven for local commercial investment.
Private education is one of the lucrative business ventures that businessmen are still using to steal money from the pockets of Syrian citizens.
182 private schools are still operating in the capital Damascus out of 214 others that were licensed before 2011. Seven of which have been closed due to violations of the laws of regime Ministry of Education.
(N.Z) a teacher in a preparatory school in Damascus, told Eqtsad about the disappearance of middle class in the Syrian capital explaining that the cost for each year in a private school may reach 1000 USD which is not an affordable amount of money by the majority of the capital's middle class who used to enroll their children in those schools but have become financially unable to do that after they lost their status and turned to blue collars.
The recent low-income lifestyle made many people rule out private schools from their options choosing public schools instead in order to save their fees to secure other basic life needs.
Tuition fees in Damascus’ private schools are usually divided to salaries of the teaching staff, the cost of extra-curricular activities and books, targeted awareness programs, school health services, and school transportation fees.
According to N.Z schools’ social activities now take place inside the school building adding that there are no more recreational trips or outdoors activities and health services as they used to be before 2011 and the pretext used to justify that is poor security conditions.
The ongoing war conditions led to exemption of decrees and laws issued by the regime in this concern. Legislative Decree No. 55 issued in 2004 on private educational institutions which stipulates that schools must obtain the approval of the Ministry of Education before they register students was fully exempted from implementation leaving the matter to the families and their financial capacity.
Sources in Damascus confirmed that the enrollment of students in one semester starts at 350 thousand Syrian pounds and may climb up to 500 thousand. However, private schools depend on monthly installments to ease the burden on parents. The tuition fees varies among schools, depending on the size and proximity of schools to the center of the capital and the services they provide to their students.
Families who earn $ 100 per month at their best cannot enroll their children in private schools, according to Mr. J.Sh, a father of four children, the eldest of whom is 15 years old.
In the same story G.Sh, a Syrian citizen living in Damascus, describes private schools as a means of racial and class discrimination that has consequently led to the increasing the social gaps among members of the Syrian society society.
He said that if he wanted to enroll his four children in the cheapest private schools, he would fall under financial debt for three consecutive years in return for one academic season.
G.Sh added that the cost of stationery for one student equals the salary of one month explaining that the price of a pencil is 100 Syrian pounds, a 200-page schoolbook is 1200 Syrian pounds and the school bag is 4000 pounds.
In its annual report Save the Children in the Middle East described the education situation in Syria as "horrific" saying that 3,000 schools had been destroyed and 900 others were out of work because they were turned into shelters to host displaced families. (Reporting by Fadi Shbat; Editing by Jamal Mamo)
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