ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish language lessons have been reinstated in schools across the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin, northwest of Syria’s Aleppo province, following a previous suspension, a source from Syria’s education ministry told Rudaw on Sunday.
According to the source, Kurdish has once again been included in the school curriculum, with two lessons taught weekly in all classes.
“After the fall of the [Bashar] al-Assad regime, education programs across Syria were unified under the government system, including in Afrin. However, Kurdish language lessons have now returned and are once again being taught in schools,” the source said.
Ahmed Hassan, head of the local office of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) - an umbrella group of Kurdish parties in northeast Syria (Rojava) - in Afrin confirmed the development, saying that Kurdish language classes have resumed across schools in the enclave.
Lessons are currently held twice a week, Hassan added, noting that the ENKS has further requested Kurdish be recognized as an official language of Syria alongside Arabic.
It is worth noting that Kurdish was the primary language of instruction in Afrin during the period when the region was governed by the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), which administers Rojava.
However, following Turkey-backed forces’ capture of Afrin in 2018 - which displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds - Kurdish-language education was reduced to just one hour per week.
After the formation of an interim government in Damascus late last year, Kurdish was reportedly removed entirely from the curriculum before being reinstated this month.
Mohammed Sankari, head of the interim government’s political affairs office in Afrin, told Rudaw on Monday that the new transitional government still classifies Kurdish as a “foreign” language, despite Syria’s large Kurdish population. The education ministry revised the curriculum to categorize all non-Arabic languages as foreign, including Kurdish, Sankari then said.
The education ministry source, who spoke to Rudaw on Sunday, noted that there are currently “no negotiations” between Damascus and the DAANES education authority, except for an existing agreement allowing grade nine and grade 12 students in DAANES-administered areas to take Syrian national exams.
Students transferring from Rojava schools are accepted into Syrian public schools after their academic level is assessed and placement is determined accordingly, the source added.
Following the ouster of Assad in early December, security forces affiliated with the new leadership in Damascus assumed control of Afrin. Since then, according to Sankari, approximately 24,305 families have returned to the Kurdish-majority enclave.