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Like all other key areas of life, Education has been absent in Ash-Shafah town for years because of Daesh that had prevented education along with many important needs of the society during its domination over the town.
After being displaced for a long time, where their town had been a scene of fierce battles between the international coalition and the SDF on the one hand and Daesh on the other, the people of Ash-Shafah returned to build their town and bring back the arteries of life that have been cut off.
The people of Ash-Shafah have attached great importance to education as they are aware of the dangerous effects of ignorance that has afflicted their children due to the practices of Daesh, and the brutal battles that took place in their area. This pushed a group of Ash-Shafah people, through individual initiatives, to develop a quick plan to advance the education process in the town.
With the support of the people and teachers of the town, they were able to equip eight of the 27 schools of Ash-Shafah, of which 15 schools were completely destroyed while the rest needed some restoration and rehabilitation.
The eight schools, that have been newly rehabilitated by Ash-Shafah people, lack disks, so students are forced to sit on the ground while receiving lessons, and also no boards are available, where teachers are forced to give lessons verbally. And as they have no assigned curriculum, teachers have been relying on the Assad regime’s old curriculum, and on that of the UNICEF.
With the coming of the new school year 2019-2020, the number of students who enrolled Ash-Shafah schools reached about 5,000 students, after people have been encouraging their children to enroll schools and make up for the loss of education during the past years, where the number of students in some schools reached 500 students. All the schools that are currently opened in Ash-Shafah town are primary schools, and no middle or secondary school has yet been opened.
The educational process in Ash-Shafah town depends on a number of volunteer teachers from the town, with different specializations and degrees (colleges of education, intermediate colleges, engineering, secondary certificates), in addition to a small number of teachers employed by the educational office of Deir Ezzor Civil Council. The monthly salary of each teacher is approximately 60,000 Syrian pounds.
After the dark years experienced by the people of Ash-Shafah town, like other people of Deir Ezzor countrysides, during which the the extremist organization “Daesh” ruled the region and prevented education, the people realized the importance of education in protecting their children from the dangers of ignorance and its effects, that have disastrous ends leading to the destruction of whole societies and their capabilities.