(Zaman Al Wasl)- The educational process in Syrian opposition-held eastern Qalamoun region is facing many challenges and difficulties as most schools suffer lack of textbooks provided by the regime.
Hazem Bakr, a pseudonym for a faculty member in the tow of al-Rahiba northeastern the capital, told Zaman al-Wasl that the state of education in the eastern cities and towns of Qalamoun is generally acceptable, with the exception of a number of problems related to the rehabilitation of some educational centers for elementary school groups. This forced the staff in the city to do morning and evening school shifts to accommodate the large number of students this year.
He added that schools also suffer from a severe crisis in securing the textbooks, especially for primary and preparatory grades. On average, these schools were able to only provide one or two textbooks per class.
He explained that the reason for this was due to regime not proivding to provide schools in the region with the total need of textbooks this year.
Regarding the measures taken to compensate for the lack of textbooks, Bakr pointed out that the currently available solution is photocopying and reproducing books within the local libraries, but at the expense of the student himself, which will burden the people in light of the sharp rise in the prices of school supplies, poverty and unemployment suffered by most breadwinners in the region.
On the other hand, some schools in al-Rahiba, Jeroud and al-Dumeir were completely or partially damaged as a result of their direct targeting by regime forces in previous years. The latter refused to carry out any maintenance of the damaged school facilities.
Bakr noted that some of the schools have become shelters for the displaced population while other schools are located close to the military divisions of regime forces. This put the schools under risk and forced the parents to leave schools to protect the lives of their children. The framework of the educational process.
Consequently, these schools were out of the educational process and led to an increase in the number of students in the classrooms of function schools.
Said al-Tawil, a father of three, said, “like other parents, I have a very difficult time securing my children's school supplies, especially with the high prices of children clothes, notebooks, bags and other stationery. This is quite exhausting for me and to most families whose life conditions have changed.”
He added in an exclusive statement to Zaman al-Wasl that the process of photocopying the books requires additional time at the expense of the students themselves, and to some extent delay their teaching in light of the decline in their educational level. He also called for avoiding this problem in the coming times and to find suitable solutions for it early in the school year to ensure the proper functioning of the educational process.
Al-Tawil pointed out that the minor income of teachers leads them to rely on private lessons, which exhaust the teacher and leads to a decline in his teaching.
He also mentioned the problem of overcrowding in the classrooms because of the large influx of displaced persons into the region during the past years from different areas, indicating the number of students in the classroom reached 30 students in the first and second grades, and 45 students in secondary grades.
Zaman A Wasl
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