Damascus-SANA
Today, the Minister of Education, Dr. Darem Tabbaa, discussed with the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russell, and her accompanying delegation, ways to enhance educational cooperation, especially with regard to responding to the repercussions of the earthquake.
Minister Tabbaa explained during the meeting that the ministry, since the first day of the earthquake, has formed an operations room in each governorate to follow up on what is happening in schools, pointing out that after the earthquake disaster, Syrian students formed a distinguished social situation, as they began collecting donations of various kinds to help those affected.
Tabbaa indicated that until now the number of schools affected by the earthquake has reached 2,345, 245 of which are out of service, in addition to that 109 schools have been allocated to be used as shelters, pointing out that the government is working to allocate special centers to shelter those affected by the earthquake disaster to reopen these schools, in addition to To work on finding alternative ways to educate students who cannot return to school in the governorates of Aleppo, Lattakia and Hama.
Dr. Tabaa pointed out that the percentage of schools that returned to service in Aleppo governorate amounted to 80 percent, but only 65 percent of the students who returned, while students and parents in Lattakia governorate are still afraid of the earthquake and aftershocks and have not yet returned to their homes, and do not want to return to schools. Indicating that the Ministry has started to carry out sports, musical and artistic activities for psychological and physical support for children who were affected by the earthquake, in cooperation with the educational department.
For her part, Russell emphasized the organization's endeavor to participate in these activities and initiatives undertaken by the Ministry, indicating that she had seen the catastrophic situation in Aleppo as a result of the earthquake, and heard from the parents and students about it, as the organization will work to contribute to returning all children to their schools as soon as possible.
Russell pointed to the difficulty of education for children who were affected and live in shelters and the importance of finding solutions to these problems, pointing to the organization's efforts to rebuild and restore schools, in addition to conducting strengthening courses for teachers on the curricula developed by the Ministry.
Russell drew attention to the importance of the activities and initiatives undertaken by the Ministry, such as psychological and physical support for children, and work to strengthen and refine their skills, explaining that the reason for her visit to Syria is to draw everyone's attention to what is happening there, as the organization will make all efforts to help affected children.
The meeting was attended by the regional director of the organization in the Middle East and North Africa, the representative of the organization in Syria, and the director of planning and international cooperation in the ministry.
Rehab Ali
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