Al-Hasakah – Majid Al Salem
At the end of the 2023-2024 school year, Mohammed Al Haj, 59, decided to move from his rural area of Qamishli to the city center for the sole reason of enrolling his son in his ninth grade course.
Al Haj told Enab Baladi that the high costs and lack of educational institutions in the countryside forced his family to migrate to the city to further their education.
He said the monthly rent was 1.1 million Syrian pounds (US$75), plus Ampere subscription fees and other monthly family expenses of 3 million Syrian pounds (US$200).
He couldn’t afford all these expenses on his own, but “luckily” he has two sons in Germany who cover most of the costs, including tuition fees, without whose help he says he wouldn’t be able to live in the city.
The lack of institutions in Al-Hasakah countryside that offer support courses for students poses challenges, especially for Grade 9 and bachelor’s students and their families.
After this year’s exams end on June 13, preparations for the next academic year, 2024-2025, will begin. More than 550,000 people have registered to take the basic education exams and high school graduation exams in various fields.
According to statistics, there are 10,258 students registered in Al-Hasakah governorate, distributed across 132 high school diploma examination centers and 79 basic education diploma examination centers in both Al-Hasakah and Qamishli.
Housing Issues
Housing is one of the biggest challenges faced by rural families looking to enrol their children in higher education or degree courses.
Enab Baladi has seen many cases where families are forced to migrate from the countryside to the city, taking on financial burdens and debts, in order to enrol their children in educational courses.
Another solution families turn to is to have their ninth or high school students live with relatives in the city, despite it being “socially embarrassing for both parties.”
Tamer Al Hussein, 53, from the countryside of Al-Qahtaniyah, told Enab Baladi he considered himself luckier than other rural families because he owns a house in Qamishli and moved there about a year ago to continue his children’s education.
He added that earlier he was able to sustain his household finances through rental income from his house but now he has no choice but to live in the city for his children’s education.
There are no research laboratories in the countryside.
Speaking about the difficulties of opening educational institutions in rural areas, Hawash Mohammad, 46, an Arabic language teacher from the countryside of Talhamis, said that the number of students in one village is small, sometimes not exceeding 10.
Another reason, according to the teacher, is the tough economic situation facing rural residents and the inability to pay “satisfactory salaries to teachers,” which makes teachers prefer to migrate to cities. In addition, rural areas lack public services such as electricity.
He added that teachers prefer to move to cities to teach there because tuition fees are twice as high as in rural areas. He said he personally wants to move to cities because there are fewer students and their families are in poor economic situations, with some unable to pay even half the tuition fees, so he made some students pay their tuition fees in advance.
The solution students rely on
Mohammad Hassoun, a student from Kwitele village in Qamishli countryside, told Enab Baladi that he is currently working towards earning a bachelor’s degree through his own efforts, after his father tried to get him enrolled in a school in the city but was unable to do so due to difficulties finding accommodation and high tuition fees, “all in dollars.”
He said he tried to stay in his village and commute to the institute every day but it was very difficult as his village is about 65 km away from Kameshri and other villages are about 100 km further away.
The cost of travelling for one day is 12,000 Syrian pounds, which, together with personal expenses, brings the total to 25,000 pounds.
Hassoun added that the weather is very hot, the roads are tiring and transport is not always available, with most of the village minibuses returning around 1pm, making it impossible for students to attend evening courses.
Now, Hasson tries to follow his classes through special WhatsApp groups he has created with his rural and urban classmates, where they exchange syllabus, notes, summaries and explanations of curriculum materials.
Tuition fees at private schools vary, with some being denominated in dollars and others in Syrian pounds.
Enab Baladi said he visited several schools and fees vary depending on the teacher and the number of students in the group or class, with some classes having 10 students and others having as many as 40.
Fees start at a minimum of 1,000,000 Syrian Pounds (65 USD) per subject within the group and increase depending on the subject.
