Lebanese schools announced adding an evening shift to their class schedule in order to allow Syrian refugees an opportunity to continue their education after fleeing violence in their homeland.
Alaa, a 15-year-old girl, left her hometown Homs seven months ago and moved to Tripoli in northern Lebanon where she lives with her mother’s relatives.
“I studied till ninth grade in Homs, but was not able to take the mid-year exam because the school was bombed,” she told Al Arabiya.
She added that after that her house and the entire neighborhood where she lived were bombed too so they had to flee to Lebanon.
“Here I will be enrolled in al-Iman where I, and other refugees, will get the chance to continue from where we stopped in Syria.”
According to Rasmia Maasarani, supervisor of al-Iman school, there are 7,000 Syrian students in northern Lebanon alone and thousands in other Lebanese governorates.
“Al-Iman school has six branches that will admit around 5,000 Syrian students. The teachers will be Syrians, too,” she told Al Arabiya.
Maasarani explained that the school administration announced recruiting Syrian teachers and so far has received more than 800 applications.
“We are currently looking into the applications to choose the most experienced of applicants.”
Maasarani added that each of the teachers will get $600 per month at most.
Somaya, one of the appointed teachers, worked in Homs and fled to Lebanon.
“I teach physics and chemistry to students in the preparatory stage and I will do the same here in Tripoli,” she told Al Arabiya.
For the time being, Somaya is also helping with teachers’ applications.
According to Maasarani, Syrian students will start going to classes in the first week of October.
“When they start coming to classes, the students will get the books and the stationary free of charge. Transportation will also be for free,” she concluded.
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