After being closed for more than a week following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, schools reopened on Sunday December 15 in Syria. With the arrival of rebels to power in Damascus, questions now remain about the future of the school and its program, used until now by the Assad clan. In Homs, students and teachers expressed their joy, regaining freedom of speech after decades of persecution.
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With our special correspondents in Homs, Murielle Paradon And Boris Vicith
In the Ghoulnata high school in Homs (central-west of the Syria), it’s a return to school with fanfare: the students, all girls, celebrate the fall of Bashar el Assad. At 16, Hajel hopes that the days of propaganda at school are finally over: “ We were studying the history of the Baath Party and of Bashar al-Assad, that he was a good president who helped us. We knew it was a web of lies, that it was killing people. And now we will be able to say it in public. »
Mohammed Rajoub is a professor of Arabic literature. He hopes to be able to teach freely in the future, without fear of being denounced and arrested: “ I was thrown in prison twice by the Assad regime. One of my colleagues who worked here wrote a report with false accusations about me. »
It is too early to say if school programs will change with the new power and in what way. But for Rafa, a French teacher, education should bring all Syrians together: “ We must work together, we must work well and build our country, a new Syria which will be very good “, she said in French, hoping for a new Syria that will have to be built with new generations.
According to a public school employee to AFP, the attendance rate on Sunday “ does not exceed 30% ” but ” numbers expected to increase gradually “.
The universities also reopened their doors but only a few administrative staff were present on Sunday morning. “ Most of the students are from other provinces and it takes some time for everything to return to normal », Underlined one of them who wished to remain anonymous.
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