Idleb governorate’s education director Abdelhmeid Maamar said that the Saraqeb crossing opened for students to exit and submit their secondary and junior exams starting from Monday at 8am. But armed groups and the Turkish side are greatly restricting students and preventing them from heading to safe areas to submit their exams.
In a statement, Maamar said that there is a working team waiting for the students to leave the Saraqeb crossing, and that the authorities responsible for securing the students have taken all steps to cooperate with the Red Crescent. These steps have included securing buses to transport students from the Saraqeb crossing to the hosting centers set up to accommodate students in Hama province. The Hama directorates of education and health, and the Idleb health directorate, cooperated to set up 12 centers. They are equipped with everything the students need, including full health supervision and personal health packages for each student.
Maamar added that gunmen last year arrested students after they finished their exams, subjecting them to prison and destroying their ID cards. He clarified that students were barred from taking the exams that would determine their academic paths. This is consistent with other practices of armed groups that have made Idleb a cultural black spot, in order to serve the group’s aspirations of spreading ignorance and spreading these ideas in an area of Syria with a deep cultural history.
According to Maamar, “There will be remedial lessons in all subject areas in the residence centers for every impacted student. Each center has a hall or two halls for this purpose, and we have 27 exam centers this year. Seven of the centers are for basic education and the other 20 are for secondary education. There are 2,680 targeted students in both basic and secondary education, in various subjects.”
He clarified that basic education certificate exams were postponed for students in the three governorates of Aleppo, Idleb and Raqqa in order to protect students’ safety. Maamar added that he had “recordings of voice messages condemning the Turkish side and gunmen, who prevented the students from moving.” There are “obstacles from the Turkish side, and students were shot at while they tried to approach the Saraqeb crossing to leave the hotspots toward Hama province,” Maamar said.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
