The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) said that the children of Syria, which gave humanity its first alphabet, today suffer from disastrous illiteracy and the collapse of the educational system. It said that Assad regime, with direct Russian and Iranian support, destroyed schools, killed and displaced teachers and students.
In a press release marking the International Literacy Day, the SOC on Tuesday said that many countries around the world celebrate the elimination of illiteracy while millions of children in Syria are still deprived of the basic right to education.
“Our children are out of school and are living in a disastrous present, with a grim future awaiting them. They are left without the slightest cognitive qualification to face the challenges laying ahead, not to mention building a human capable of contributing to rebuilding their homeland and reforming what the Assad regime destroyed over the past decade,” the SOC said.
The SOC stressed that the Syrian Interim Government is striving to reverse the disasters the regime brought on Syria by targeting schools and dealing with them as military targets. It is a blatant crime whose perpetrators are yet to be held accountable.
“On the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, which falls on September 9, we also refer to the war being waged by the terrorist PYD militia against the Syrian people. The PYD imposed ideology-based school curricula in the areas under its control as part of its attempts to distort Syria’s culture, history and geography in violation of the basic right to education that is consistent with one’s culture and civilization.”
The SOC added: “People of the region are refraining from sending their children to PYD-run schools out of their belief that illiteracy is better than allowing their children to learn the ideology of hatred and extremism.”
Moreover, the SOC said that the reality of Syrian children today, including refugees and those in the IDP camps, requires cooperation among international and local institutions and civil society organizations to work on a comprehensive strategy to eradicate illiteracy among children; reintegrate them into the education process as a first step; and work on eradicating illiteracy among all age groups.
“Failure in this regard means a bleak future for hundreds of thousands of Syrian children and will have disastrous consequences for decades to come.” (Source: SOC’s Media Department)
