Reporting by Maher Radwan; Translation by Yusra Ahmed
HOMS (Zaman Al Wasl)- Director of opposition Interim Directorate of Education revealed to Zaman al-Wasl that since its foundation in May this year, it relies on only two people, the Director and the Head of Examination department. Moreover, he added that they have not been paid any Salary yet by the Ministry responsible for them, while other Ministries pay their employees monthly.
Mr. Abdul Razzaq Warda mentioned that he put a plan for the Directorate’s structure with support of the Local Revolutionary Councils in Homs’s Northern Countryside, consists of skilled teachers who were struck off the regime’s institutions.
He added that they would forward the plan to the responsible Ministry to be officially attested, “it is difficult for a Directorate covers around half a million people in Homs’s Northern Countryside and Alwaer to stay like this relying on two persons only beside an accountant assigned by the Directorate” added.
Warda told Zaman al-Wasl details about the Directorate: “it was founded on 17th May 2014, based in Rastan in Homs countryside, it covers around 67 thousand students in Homs’s Northern and North Western countryside, and al-Waer”
He added that the Directorate has supported schools financially since its foundation and it work on refurbishing damaged schools by shelling in many villages. The Directorate helped in supportive extra courses in summer for baccalaureate students.
The Director mentioned that curriculum was kept the same as regime’s one, however, the Nationalism subject was omitted, and its marks distributed to Geography and History, besides erasing all photos of Bashar and his father from teaching books.
In regard to results of school exams, Mahmood al-Yusuf, the head of Examination department in the Directorate revealed that 625 students out of 819 succeeded the first round of the exams done by the Interim Government in Homs in 2014, making 76.5% success rate.
Moreover, al-Yusuf confirmed that 1548 students from both genders succeeded the Basic Education stage, however, unfortunately 80% of students of major certificate “grade 9 and the Baccalaureate” did not have chances to apply for the general exam for 3 years.
Al-Yusuf mentioned that successful students get their certificates from Gaziantep office as it is the one responsible for Homs’s liberated areas. He added that there is plans to open intermediate institutes in Homs’s Northern countryside and Northern areas of Syria like Aleppo and Idlib, besides Turkish Universities and some French Universities which recognize the Baccalaureate certificate granted by the Syrian Interim Government. He added that there are plans to open a Syrian University in Rihaniyah in Turkey.
Basel al-Khatib, the Directorate’s accountant revealed to Zaman al-Wasl that Directorate does not have definite budget, but it receives fund according to spending. “The spending of the Directorate reached to USD.60 thousand last year, where 7 thousand were allocated to support workers and teachers who were sacked from Syrian regime's institutions, and for volunteers who helped in the examination process, 9 thousand for furnishing the Directorate building and providing needed furniture and stationery for examination centers, while 37 thousand were spent as wages for observers in exams. Al-Khatib added that 7 thousand were spent on stationery for students at the beginning of the academic year.
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