ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The new academic year began across Syria on Sunday, but many Kurdish students in the country’s northeast (Rojava) boycotted classes in protest against a recent government decision limiting Kurdish-language education to three hours a week.
Students at 20 schools in Qamishli and other parts of Rojava stayed away from classrooms, while others returned to school despite the decision.
“Our language is Kurdish. Our right [to study in Kurdish] is constitutional,” students chanted during the new academic year opening ceremony at a Kurdish school, demanding that Damascus reverse its decision.
“Today is the first day of school, but we walked out. We do not accept this decision. We will not enter the classroom unless the decision is reversed,” student Nudem Qamar told Rudaw's Viviyan Fetah on Sunday.
“We have decided not to return to school unless this decision is reversed. We have been using our mother tongue since the day we were born. We laughed, played and cried and we joined school using our mother tongue. How did they change it [Kurdish] to a foreign language overnight?” student Hamida Mohammed said.
“This decision will never be implemented as we will not accept it,” she added.
The Syrian government’s education ministry issued a decree on August 27 that ended full Kurdish-medium education in Kurdish-majority areas, allowing Kurdish to be taught as a primary subject for three hours a week.
Under the decree, non-scientific subjects such as social studies, history, geography and philosophy will be translated into Kurdish, with students allowed to study those subjects in either Kurdish or Arabic. The arrangement applies only to the current academic year, which Damascus has described as a transitional period.
Unlike previous years, Rojava’s symbols were not displayed at schools and the Kurdish national anthem, “Ey Reqib,” was not performed at the start of the academic year.
Azad Issa, head of the body supervising schools in Qamishli, said some textbooks would be translated into Kurdish.
“According to the decree issued by Damascus’ [education] ministry, some study books will be translated [into Kurdish], such as [study books for] philosophy, history, culture, geography [subjects]. Kurds and Arabs will study in their mother tongues,” Issa said.
