Binanah: Assad regime deliberately targeting schools and universities

Mohiuddin Binanah, Interim Minister of Education, met with Eva Naqvi, an adviser to the International Organization for Migration (IMO) and with Kate Robertson, Deputy Executive Director and Middle East Programme Manager of the British Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA) in his office on Tuesday. Binanah talked about the Ministry’s efforts to provide education for Syrian students inside Syria and abroad who are in danger of becoming Syria’s lost generation. UNICEF estimates that 3.5 million Syrian students have dropped out. Binanah briefed his guests about the problems and challenges facing the work of the Ministry as a result of the Assad regime’s deliberate targeting of schools and universities. Robertson stressed the importance of cooperation between CARA and the interim Ministry of Education to help Syrian academics complete their research in the European universities, and raised the need to establish an academic body in Britain to provide support for the Syrian students. Naqvi said that IMO is working to get a number of university scholarships for Syrian students in European universities, and to secure European funding to support scientific research for Syrian academics. In a similar vein, the interim Ministry of Education completed the distribution of school bags and stationery to the students in the schools of Aleppo as part of the My School campaign that was launched by the Syrian interim government in Syria and the neighboring countries. (Source: Syrian Coalition)