ReutersThere may be concern rising in Syria that the brand new Islamist-led authorities have already selected modifications to the college curriculum, with out the enter of the remainder of society.
The Fb web page of the transitional authorities’s schooling ministry has posted the brand new curriculum for all age teams, which can tackle a extra Islamic slant, in addition to dropping any reference to the Assad period throughout all topics.
The phrase “Defending the nation” has been changed by “Defending Allah”, amongst different modifications.
The Training Minister, Nazir al-Qadri, downplayed the transfer, saying the curriculum is basically unchanged and can stay so till specialised committees have been set as much as assessment and revise it.
Different proposed modifications embody Evolution and the Massive Bang idea being dropped from science educating.
References to the gods worshipped in Syria earlier than Islam, in addition to pictures of their statues, are additionally being dropped.
The importance of the nice Syrian heroine Queen Zenobia, who as soon as dominated Palmyra within the Roman period, appears to have been downplayed.
The Assad period has primarily been excised from the curriculum, together with poems celebrating each Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, in Arabic language programs.
In a press release, al-Qadri mentioned the one directions he had issued have been associated to the elimination of content material that he described as glorifying the “defunct Assad regime” and the instatement of the Syrian revolutionary flag in all textbooks.
The minister additionally mentioned that “inaccuracies” within the Islamic schooling curriculum had been corrected.
ReutersThe modifications have been welcomed by some Syrians.
However the transfer has set off alarm bells amongst resurgent civil society activists, a lot of whom have returned to Syria for the primary time in a few years.
They concern it’s a signal that their voices – and people of teams and communities throughout the nation – will not be listened to because the nation develops below its new management.
There have already been requires protests forward of the beginning of the brand new college time period on Sunday.
Activists wish to clarify their opposition to any strikes by the transitional authorities to usher in modifications to the schooling system – or some other state establishment – with out the participation of all sections of Syrian society.
The brand new authorities have made a lot of the truth that they’re to carry a Nationwide Dialogue Convention.
Officers have been holding conferences with many alternative communities – from Christians to Kurds, to artists and intellectuals.
The message has been that they wish to create a brand new Syria with the involvement of all sections of society so that every one may have a stake within the nation’s future.
However activists consider the unilateral modifications within the college curriculum undercut such guarantees and wish to make a stand proper from the beginning for the values of freedom and inclusion that the elimination of Bashar al-Assad has now made doable.
