During the Ottoman rule, there was no emphasis on education or a clear education policy. However, during its last period (the Tanzimat; Turkish for lit. ‘Reorganization’, which was a period of social and political reform), Ottoman schools that taught in Turkish were established, and alongside them there were three types of schools:
– Local religious schools
– Foreign missionary schools (the American taught by Protestant teachings, and the French by Catholic teachings)
– Arabic national schools
During the period of liberation from the Ottoman occupation, which was of an Arab-national character, Syrians tried to restore consideration to the Arabic language in the face of Turkification, and hence they insisted on Arabic education.
However, during the French occupation, there were attempts to force an education in French, all of which failed due to resistance, and Syria is now considered one of the few countries where the French occupation failed to impose French as the official language of the state, unlike Lebanon. Language education was limited at the time to American and French schools in Damascus and Aleppo, and it was restricted to the elite class; mastering one of those languages was a way to gain status.
Following independence in the 50s, the educational sector suffered in general from a lack of specialized tutors. Later on in 1967, and after transforming religious schools to national schools, the cultured elite’s dominance on these western-style schools was eliminated. Soon after, during the 70s, private schools were turned into public ones, which diminished their ability to teach languages, though a few Christian elites were able to maintain their private institutes and provide an environment for their children to learn languages.
It is worth mentioning that during that period, a few opinions stated that teaching foreign languages was a sort of “rivalry” and a competition with teaching Arabic, where Dr. Shukri Faisal, a Syrian writer and a former secretary of the Academy of Arabic Language in Damascus, said: “…. Let us eradicate this atrophic minor education of foreign language, and turn back the clock to the Arabic language (and to studies that we currently do not have space for on our weekly schedules) ….”
During the 80s, learning a language (either English or French) began in the seventh grade, which was according to a lottery. Later, after opening up to France and the visit of French president Jacques Chirac at the time in 1996, French became a mandatory second language starting from seventh grade. In 2002, when English was recognized as a common communicative language, it became a mandatory subject starting from the first grade, and curricula were updated with the help of British and American experts. Nonetheless, foreign language education in public schools- where most people study- suffered from weak teaching methods and a lack of qualified faculty members.
Lately in 2014, and due to the political atmosphere, students were given the option to learn Russian as a second language instead of French. Therefore, in light of the political role that languages played in Syria’s history, it is difficult to look at languages outside of a political framework. Additionally, the country’s historically weak influence on globalization has made learning foreign languages without tangible benefits or direct use, unlike other neighboring countries. That is why language education did not gain wide social interest, with the exception of a few social classes that still view foreign languages as a part of culture.
All this has caused us to struggle nowadays in keeping up with scientific advancement, as we have now become restricted to translation facilities that are limited to books agreeing with their ideals, and we observe the world through Arabic-speaking international social media platforms that are mostly subjects of large agencies that might share content that is targeted and deviated from the original, hence losing the advantages of diverse opinions of western societies; only observing the small part of the world that was translated for us.
Over the past decade, a lot of attention has been directed towards Syria, the beating heart of the Middle East, which embodies a complex human story as it fights to
Categories Culture and Heritage Social Issues Society I Dream I Dream of the Day I Cross the Levant on a Borderless Trip Like my Grandparents did I have always wanted
Walking along its narrow, branching and ascending staircases, Al-Muhajireen is a unique Damascene neighborhood unlike any other. Its history stretches back to 1899 when Nazim Pasha, Damascus’ Ottoman governor at