Syrian private schools work without license in Turkey: opposition official

Reporting by Faris Al Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- With the increase numbers of Syrian children in Turkey, a great deal pressure was put on teaching facilities and schools, which led to opening schools and teaching centers, to cover the need. However, some schools started to demand fees for teaching, which alerted the Turkish government to take actions.

Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Haj, advisor of the interim Prime Minister for education, explained that all Syrian schools in Turkey operate through permissions of the Turkish Government, but no school was given any permission as a “private school”, according to Turkish criteria.

The advisor of the Interim Prime minister explained to Zaman al-Wasl that Turkish government identifies the Syrian schools of exceptional circumstances as “Interim Centres of Teaching”

In regard to the profitable schools, Dr. al-Haj explained: “the aim of those schools was to help as many refugees need teaching as possible without exploiting their needs, however, the Turkish government still conservative in regard to any profitable project outside the Turkish law”

Dr. al-Haj mentioned that there is a difference between profitable schools, and others request minimal amount of fees to cover their expenses. He explained that the Turkish officials meant and targeted "the profitable schools" which used the teaching crisis of Syrians outside camps to make profit.

Zaman al-Wasl published a report about the profitable schools and the meeting between officials of the Turkish government and the Minister of Education in the Interim Government, in which officials of the Turkish Ministry of National Education confirmed that they did not give any permission for any private profitable school, and they breached the Turkish law and the Ministry would follow them up.

A well-informed source in the Interim Ministry of Education explained to Zaman al-Wasl that they requested the Turkish government to organize the activities of Syrian private profitable schools in Turkey to accommodate 200 thousand children in need for schools.

The source explained that the issue is complicated as the Turkish government would be unable to cover all children in need for schools if they close the private schools, which reached to 40 one in Istanbul only.

Dr. al-Haj mentioned that the Turkish government cooperating with the Interim government and they do their best to organize the chaos in teaching and try to provide enough teaching facilities and places, even if that required building new schools.

He added that the Turkish government did not want to turn teaching to a way to exploit Syrian people’s crisis, besides breaching the Turkish law.

He mentioned that the government does not prevent any kind of voluntary work or the Non-Profitable organization to help in teaching Syrians, as long as they work under the country’s law.

The advisor of the Interim Prime Minister revealed that the Interim Ministry of Education is about to create a directorate for organize teaching Syrian refugees in Turkey and nearby countries, to organize teaching process with cooperation with hosting countries, to improve the teaching standards and offer job opportunities to many.