Concerns are growing in Syria that the new Islamist-led government has already decided on changes to the school curriculum, without input from the rest of society.
The transitional government’s education ministry’s Facebook page has announced a new curriculum for all age groups, which will take on a more Islamic bent, as well as removing any reference to the Assad era in all subjects.
The phrase “Defense of the Nation” was replaced with “Defense of Allah”, among other changes.
The education minister, Nazir al-Qadri, downplayed the move, saying the curriculum was essentially unchanged and would remain so until specialized committees were established to review and revise it.
Other proposed changes include evolution and the Big Bang theory being dropped from science classes.
References to gods worshiped in pre-Islamic Syria, as well as images of their statues, are also dropped.
The significance of the great Syrian heroine Queen Zenobia, who once ruled Palmyra in Roman times, seems to be downplayed.
The Assad era has essentially been dropped from the curriculum, including songs celebrating both Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez in Arabic classes.
In a statement, al-Qadri said the only instructions he issued were to remove content he described as glorifying the “dead Assad regime” and to place the Syrian revolutionary flag in all textbooks.
The minister also said that “inaccuracies” in the Islamic education curriculum have been corrected.
The changes were welcomed by some Syrians.
But the move has set off alarm bells among resurgent civil society activists, many of whom have returned to Syria for the first time in years.
They fear it’s a sign that their voices – and the voices of groups and communities across the country – may not be heard as the country evolves under new leadership.
There have already been calls for protests ahead of the start of the new school term on Sunday.
Activists want to make clear their opposition to any moves by the transitional government to introduce changes to the education system – or any other state institution – without the participation of all sections of Syrian society.
The new government put a lot of effort into holding the National Dialogue Conference.
Officials held meetings with many different communities – from Christians to Kurds, to artists and intellectuals.
The message was that they wanted to create a new Syria with the inclusion of all sections of society so that everyone would have a stake in the country’s future.
But activists believe that unilateral changes to the school curriculum undermine such promises and want to stand up for the values of freedom and inclusion that Bashar al-Assad’s ouster has now made possible from the start.
