Damascus-SANA
When we look at all official Syrian universities, which are enjoying teaching all their subjects of different scientific and literary specializations in the Arabic language, we must pay close attention to the one who has the first credit for this feature that distinguishes Syrian universities from their other Arab peers, he is Dr. Reda Saeed, who is rightly considered a pioneer Arabization of education in Syria.
Dr. Reda Saeed’s efforts in this direction were the focus of a lecture by researcher Ahmed Boubus, which was titled “The Role of Reda Saeed in Arabizing Education at the University of Damascus,” and hosted by the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus, which explained that Reda Saeed was sighing as he saw his Arabic language languishing in the corners of oblivion in Damascus. The teaching sector, while the Turkish language prevailed at the time, noting that he was one of those who experienced this suffering when he received his primary, secondary, and medical education in the Turkish language, so his permanent dream was for the Arabic language to replace the Turkish language in education, and this dream kept coming to him until The opportunity came to achieve it.
And before Popps delved into the efforts of Reda Saeed in Arabizing education, he highlighted his upbringing and cultural formation that pushed him in this direction. Including in 1902 an officer doctor.
He continued: In 1909, Reda Saeed was dispatched to Paris to specialize in ophthalmic diseases, where he joined the "Hotel Dieu" hospital affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris, and in 1913 he was transferred to Damascus to work in the military hospital "Mezzeh Military Hospital now", to move afterwards. He held several positions until he was elected in 1917 as mayor of Damascus.
And about his founding of the Arab Medical Institute in Damascus, Popps stated that in 1918 Damascus was exposed to the typhoid pandemic, so Reda Saeed was busy fighting it, but the disease crept into his house and infected his wife and she died as a result, where Prince Faisal asked him to establish a medical institute in Damascus, and Saeed’s only condition was Teaching in it should be in Arabic, as he entrusted the task of developing medical curricula in Arabic to Dr. Morshed Khater, who began his first academic year in 1919.
Pops pointed out that the Arabization of education at the Medical Institute in Damascus was not only for the teaching of medicine, but was the basis for Arabizing university education, pointing out that Reda Saeed did not want the experience of teaching medicine in Arabic to remain confined to the institute, but rather wanted to introduce the cultural and scientific circles within the institute. Syria and abroad, so he decided to establish a medical journal affiliated with the Institute, to be issued monthly with the aim of consolidating the teaching of medicine and encouraging medical thinking and scientific research in the Arabic language, provided that the studies and research in it, which was editor-in-chief Dr. Murshid Khater, where the first issue was published in January 1924.
The great concern of Dr. Reda Saeed, according to Boubus, was to obtain Arab recognition for the process of Arabizing the curricula of the Arab Medical Institute, pointing out that the most important step he took was to obtain global recognition for the institute’s certificate, by bringing in four senior medical professors in France to teach in it, with the aim of benefiting from State-of-the-art medicine in Europe.
Popps pointed out that Reda Saeed was his constant endeavor to enhance the status of the Arabic language, not only in the matter of teaching, but also on the official, scientific, cultural and social levels, after the French language was dominant, especially in the official side, so he worked to create a school of literature that handles Teaching mainly the Arabic language, in addition to Arabic literature and Arab culture.
Reda Saeed laid the foundation for the Arabization of university education, which was followed by the faculties that were created after that, so that the Arabic language became the language of teaching and science in the Syrian University, which now bears the name of Damascus University. The Arabic language is the language of instruction and science.
Reda Saeed’s efforts were not limited to Arabizing university education, but extended to include pre-university education, so that the Arabic language became the basis for teaching in the new Syrian baccalaureate instead of the French language. Syria is now blessed with him thanks to his efforts, which deserve all honor and appreciation.
Shatha Hammoud
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