After a two-year hiatus (first necessitated by political upheaval and then by the pandemic), the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon has been able to open their 4 schools for Syrian refugee children. This one, in Tripoli, started at the end of October with 65 children in four classes but will expand when they are able to hire an additional teacher. There are already many children on a waiting list.
As the principal, Dominique Nazha (l), and Rev. Rola Sleiman (r), pastor of the Presbyterian Church there explained to me on my recent visit, most of the families of these kids fled from the area around Homs, Syria, and few had ever been to school. So, even 10-year-olds may be learning the alphabet or writing their names for the first time. Dominque “broke down the statistics” of the older class of children who are 9 or 10: in a class of 13, only 2 knew the alphabet, a few could write their names, but most were completely illiterate. In a “normal” school these children would automatically be placed into the 4th or 5th grade based upon their age – where they would likely fail. But here, there is no shame in being behind and each student is attended to according to their learning needs.
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