With the active participation of the Education Without Borders/ Midad foundation and with the aim of achieving sustainable education in Syria, the International Conference on Syrian Education (ICSE) was held in Istanbul, Turkey, on February 18 and 19, with the participation of a large number of interested and supportive people for education issues in Syria.
The conference was attended by the adviser and assistant of the Turkish Ministry of Education, the sponsorship of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Organization “IHH” and the Qatari “Eid Charity” Foundation, and the participation of international and Syrian foundations interested in education such as Education Without Borders/ Midad Foundation and Midad Center for Student Services and Consultations, headquartered in Istanbul and managed by Eng. Bashar AL-Heraki.
During the conference, representatives of the sponsoring institutions confirmed that it came “in order to advance the Syrian educational process to secure a better future for Syrian children and youth out of university education.” They also spoke about their vision on Syrian education issues and the problems they face and presented solutions that can be implemented.
Ali Abdullah Al-Suwaidi, Director-General of the Qatari Eid Charitable Foundation that supports the conference, said in an interview with Enab Baladi newspaper that the main goal was to gather specialists and international organizations interested in Syrian education issues to advance their work after developing a comprehensive plan for that.
Al-Suwaidi added that the outcome of the workshops that offered programs to apply inside and outside Syria will be implemented with the help of the educational institutions that attended the conference. Education Without Borders – MIDAD Foundation had a role in this, pointing out efforts to support the educational process at the pre-university level through unified curricula that are compatible with the Syrian curriculum.
The number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the beginning of 2017 reached: 4,863,684 refugees and more than a million and a half are scattered around the world, and the number of displaced people inside Syria reached nearly 7.5 million.
Due to this forced displacement and the permanent war on the Syrian people from the regime and its allies, nearly 2.5 million students have been deprived of the right to education.
Sensing this catastrophic danger to the right of Syrian children to education, the International Conference on Syrian Education (pre-university) was held in Istanbul
for Syrian students inside Syria and neighbouring countries. The conference is sponsored by: the Turkish Ministry of Education, the Turkish IHH organization, the Qatari Eid Foundation, the Humanitarian Funds of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Islamic Council of Donor foundations, and the Knowledge Authority for Education and Culture (Syrian).
The conference lasted for two days; On the first day, seven workshops were held to discuss curricula, the educational process, the phenomenon of dropouts, academic delays, e-learning, student problems, the policies governing the educational process, and approximately 24 topics related to everything related to the education of Syrian students.
On the second day, international organizations and bodies, donors, experts and academics specialized in the educational process are participating in order to reach solutions to give the Syrian child his right to education.
