Meaning “school of peace”, Al Salam School delivers free education to hundreds of Syrian refugee children and is the flagship project of the Syrian Kids Foundation. In October 2012, a group of Canadian volunteers founded the school in Reyhanli, Turkey, about one mile away from Turkey’s busiest border crossing with Syria. On the first day the volunteers expected 300 students. However the demand was incredible: 1,000 children were lined up at the doors. The volunteers accepted them all and redoubled their efforts to accommodate the expanding needs of the Syrian refugee population by building a second floor, hiring more Syrian refugee teachers, and running classes in five shifts from 7am to 6pm, 6 days per week.
The Need
The scale of the tragedy of the Syrian war and its devastating impact on the education of its children has become overwhelming. More than half of the Syrian refugee population has fled to Turkey. The number of out-of-school Syrian children ages 5-18 has reached approximately 1.2 million as of March 2020. Only about 64,000 of the 3.6 million live in refugee camps. An overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees are outside the camps and spread across Turkey’s 81 provinces, without access to basic humanitarian aid and education (Tekin-Koru, 2020). The principal barriers to education these children face are a lack of schools in their native Arabic language, the high costs of transportation to schools, and the increasing rates of child labour. Faced with these obstacles, enrolment has plummeted, as only 14% of primary school-aged Syrian refugees in Turkey are enrolled in school, compared to near-universal enrolment before the war broke out. These children suffer from trauma and serious physical and psychological damage as a result of exposure to severe violence and the loss of loved ones. Without the emotional and academic support of a nurturing school community, out-of-school refugee children face a higher risk of engaging in child labour, being radicalized by extremist groups, and for girls, being forced into early marriage. Despite the odds, there have been some improvements made over the years. Recently, enrolment rates show that 89,7% of Syrian children attend primary school.
The school
Our school is a rented concrete multistory structure consisting of 19 classrooms, a computer lab, a science lab, a front garden, a covered outdoor area for sports, and a backyard with olive trees. You can see a guided tour of the school grounds here. Our students are aged 6-13 years, and include some of the most marginalized children of the refugee community including orphans, illiterate children and children with disabilities. From mid-June until August annually the school runs accelerated learning programs for newly arrived refugees, and remedial classes for failing students, in order to catch them up before the September school year start.
What do students pay?
Students attend Al Salam school at no cost: tuition, textbooks, equipment and stationery are provided through financial and in-kind donations. The school benefits from important partnerships with Sunrise USA and Karam Foundation (donation of computer lab) and the Syrian Education Commission (donation of textbooks). The school owns two buses to transport staff and students to and from school for all five daily shifts, which is absolutely crucial for their attendance.
What do students learn?
Al Salam operates on a modified Syrian curriculum with Arabic-language instruction, so that the children will be able to ultimately re-integrate into the Syrian education system. English and Turkish languages are taught intensively in all grades. All teachers who receive a stipend are Syrian refugees with full teaching qualifications and minimum five years’ experience. The school provides 20 hours of pre and in-service teacher training per year in active learning methodologies that foster critical thinking, and enhance children’s confidence to voice their ideas and questions. The school benefits from the generous donation of expertise and time from many international volunteers annually who provide enrichment classes, train teachers and provide skills training for students. Our volunteers have delivered on-site workshops and training in topics such as English language, leadership, video editing, computer skills and arts and crafts. Notably, the school runs a student parliament to teach Syria’s next generation the value and responsibilities of democratic and civic engagement. Together, the teachers and volunteers work to uphold childrens’ right to education and provide a safe space and a child-friendly environment for severely affected young refugees to forget the war, socialize, run freely, play, thrive, and be children again.
Despite the hardships faced by the refugee community, in the 2014/15 academic year our students achieved an impressive 91% daily attendance rate and 80 of our grade 12 students received a Turkish high school equivalence diploma. The school has garnered a lot of attention from major news outlets such as CBC and NBC, who have filmed stories about the school, to update viewers on progress at Al Salam school.