Radical and Outrageous changes made to Syria’s school curriculum, Report

International research and policy institute IMPACT-se (Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education) has published a new report analyzing fresh directives from Syria’s new Ministry of Education on January 1, 2025. These directives set the tone of new Syrian textbooks and classroom instruction under the new regime.

The report reveals a trend towards the curriculum’s Islamization, with directives calling for the removal of secular scientific concepts, the erasure of depictions of women from textbooks and the addition of new content describing martyrdom as a Godly endeavor.

The report also analyzes the content that the regime has deliberately retained, including antisemitic, anti-Western, terror glorifying material from the Assad-era curriculum (analyzed in a previous IMPACT-se report). By studying both the new directives and the aspects of the existing curriculum that were ignored for revision, the report provides a comprehensive picture of the ideological direction of the Syrian education system under the new regime.

Syrian Education Minister al-Qadiri has stated in the media that the proposed changes are limited to inaccuracies in Islamic Education. However, IMPACT-se’s report reveals that the planned revisions are far more extensive.

Islamization and martyrdom:

Despite the new Syrian Minister of Education stating in an interview on Al-Arabiya, that the reform is specific to Islamic education, a close review of the modifications reveal insertions of Islamized material in a range of subjects, such as science and history.

In a Grade 1 Sciences textbook, the chapter entitled “The Gift(s) of Nature” is set to be Islamized by changing it to “The Gift(s) from Allah.” This emphasizes commitment to divine law, and the entrenching of religious Muslim character into Syrian society from a young age.

Additionally, the removal of secular scientific concepts, perceived to be un-Islamic, is exemplified in the removal of an entire Grade 8 Biology textbook chapter on evolution, titled “The Origin of Life and its Development on Earth.” These changes are aimed to explain natural phenomena by attributing them to Allah.

An additional modification requests the reframing of martyrdom from a national to a religious perspective in a Grade 9 lesson, glorifying martyrdom as an exalted deed worthy of reward by Allah through replacing the term “a person giving away his soul to defend his homeland” with “a person giving away his soul for the sake of Allah.”

Turkey and the West:

Recent textbook directives in Syria reflect a potential political shift towards Turkey while maintaining hostility toward the West. One overarching directive calls for the removal of negative references to the Ottoman Empire, softening its portrayal by replacing “Ottoman occupation” with “Ottoman regime.”

For example, an amendment calls for removing a passage describing the “injustice and oppression” that the Ottoman Empire exercised against the Arabs, in a Grade 3 Arabic Language textbook.

Meanwhile, the new Ministry of Education has neglected to call for the removal of the curriculum’s entrenched anti-western rhetoric, as seen in Grade 11 Arabic Language textbooks, which depict western powers as violent oppressive warmongers and exploiters, feeding on the “blood of the innocent.”

Removal of Assad-related content:

The primary focus of these amendments is the removal of Assad’s legacy from the curriculum. The directive states that lessons, images and phrases praising the “defunct” regime must be removed and the subject of nationalistic education must be discontinued.

In an example illustrating Syria’s participation in the Olympics, a Grade 1 Chemistry textbook must replace the Assad-era Syrian flag with that of the revolution, or the Olympics symbol. In addition, a Grade 2 Arabic Language textbook requires the removal of the instruction to “complete the national anthem” since it contains the song “Defenders of the Lands” (the national anthem under the Assad regime).

Gender:

The recent textbook revisions also reflect a notable shift towards the removal of female historical figures and women’s rights activists from various textbooks. This includes the deletion of references to Nazik al-Abid, known as the “Joan of Arc of the Arabs”, Queen Zenobia and Khawla bint al-Azwar in Grade 3 Islamic Education and Social studies textbooks, despite their historical presence.

This appears to stem from a conservative view on women’s roles in society. Additionally, illustrations of women not wearing the hijab are being removed, reflecting religious considerations.

Jews and antisemitism:

Based on a list of planned changes, there are very few modifications relating to the portrayal of Jews. However, one change negatively referencing Jews and Christians has been introduced.

In a Grade 1 Islamic Education exercise, an existing reference to “those who have gone astray from the path of goodness” is to be replaced with an explicit mention of Jews and Christians, based on a common exegesis of the Qur’an. This change introduces an overtly negative portrayal of Jews and Christians to young, impressionable students.

This new addition corroborates material already entrenched in the curriculum which remains untouched by the new regime, depicting Jews and Zionists using antisemitic tropes referring to racism and global dominance.

Meanwhile, a Grade 10 History textbook describes Jews as adhering to the “extremist idea” that they are “God’s chosen people,” presenting Judaism as “ethnically exclusive,” and self-referentially superior.

Israel:

The recent changes in Syrian textbooks reflect an effort to shift away from Assad’s influence, particularly in how the October 1973 war is framed. While the war is now referred to as “the 1973 war” instead of a “liberation war,” this change appears to be more about distancing the curriculum from the previous regime’s narrative rather than shifting attitudes toward Israel.

Significant amounts of anti-Israel content is set to remain in textbooks. For example, Grade 5 Arabic Language textbooks still portray Dalal al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian terrorist responsible for the 1978 Coastal Road bus attack that killed 38 Israeli civilians (including 13 children), as a hero, in Grade 5 Arabic Language textbooks.

A Grade 12 History textbook describes Zionism as a “racist and expansionist” world view, which “believes that all the world’s resources must be employed to serve the Zionist Entity and protect it” linking Zionism with control and the exploitation of global resources, evoking antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination.