NON-STATE ACTORS IN EDUCATION
2.2 Non-state education provision
3.1 Regulations by distinct levels of education
- Early childhood care and education (Entry/Establishment ○ Financial operation ○ Quality of teaching and learning ○ Equitable access ○ Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability)
- Primary and secondary education (Entry/Establishment ○ Financial operation ○ Quality of teaching and learning ○ Equitable access ○ Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability)
- Tertiary education (Entry/Establishment ○ Financial operation ○ Quality of teaching and learning ○ Equitable access ○ Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability)
3.2 Supplementary private tutoring
Since 2011, the Syrian Arab Republic has been undergoing a civil war that has “deeply impacted children and their ability to access high-quality education with equity” (p. 1) The provision of education is affected by the different actors that have been controlling swathes of Syrian territory, including opposition groups, the Syrian government, the Islamic State, and Kurdish groups (p. 14). For example, the opposition-led Syrian Interim Government has created an alternative Ministry of Education (MoE) tasked with overseeing education in non-regime-controlled territories. The war has further altered the geographical distribution of the Syrian people, with approximately 55% of Syrians having been uprooted from their homes as 5.6 million have become refugees and 6.7 million are internally displaced persons. Among the latter, many displaced school- and university-age Syrians have been left outside the educational system, in part due to the fact that one out of every three schools cannot be used as of 2021. Moreover, ten years into the war, over 2.4 million children, which is more than one-third of all children, remain outside of school.
1. Terminology
According to the 2004 Legislative Decree No. 55 on private pre-tertiary education, which was further amended in 2016, a “private educational institution” is defined as every non-governmental educational institution in the private sector, including kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, secondary religious educational bodies, language centres, and special needs schools. The only actors that are recognised by the state in the law as non-state actors are private entities. Beyond exclusively private entities, the abovementioned law notes that educational institutions may operate in the shared (public-private) sector in which the state owns at least 51% of the capital, with the body taking the form of a closed joint-stock or limited liability company, and is treated as a “private educational institution”. In accordance with Article 2, if the licence applicant is a natural person, he or she must be an Arab Syrian that meets several requirements, including having obtained a recognised university degree, being free of diseases, and able to fulfil the financial requirements of the institution. Article 3 further specifies that if the licence applicant is a legal person, regardless of whether the person is Syrian or non-Syrian, he or she must identify a Syrian Arab citizen as a representative in his or her place or someone similar who fulfils the requirements specified in Article 2.
The 2004 Legislative Decree No. 55 (Art. 2) stipulates that providers at the ECCE, primary and secondary levels must be natural persons. In addition, the founders at the tertiary education level may be a foundation, an individual, or a company (Art. 10).
2. Typology of provision
2.1 State education provision
State schools
In the Syrian Arab Republic, 97% of primary and intermediate schools and 94% of upper secondary schools are public, with the remainder constituting private schools as of 2016. In accordance with the 2012 Law No. 7 on Compulsory Education, all male and female children between the ages of 6 and 15 are required to attend primary (elementary and middle) education schools until the 9th grade. In such schools, religious education is available and compulsory for Muslim and Christian students from Grade 1 until the completion of secondary school.
Because of the war, the Syrian opposition has established an interim government and a provisional Ministry of Education. Since the security situation in government-controlled territories is more secure, many schools in such regions have overcrowded classrooms. In non-regime-controlled territories, most functional schools are in the Idleb governorate and its rural areas, and there are a few in Rural Damascus.
Non-state managed, state schools
No information was found.
Non-state funded, state schools
A large number of non-state actors, including organisations, private actors and donors have provided funds to help children and young people access quality education since the 2011 civil war.
2.2 Non-state education provision
Independent, non-state schools
The Christian schools that exist are private schools that are not officially overseen by the Ministry of Education but still seek accreditation for students to be able to progress within the education system, such as to enrol in universities. There are only a few private Christian schools in different governorates, with the exact number being unknown. Some of the foreign schools or elite international schools that existed were closed during or after the war began. No information was found as to their number to date. Finally, some Sharia schools are completely private or run by individuals in the community. In such schools, the state is not involved in determining the curriculum, spending, and management.
The Syrian Arab Republic does not refer to independent “low-cost” non-state schools in official documents.
State-funded (government-aided), non-state schools
There were about 220 Sharia state schools as of 2013. While Sharia schools receive some funding from the government, much of their funding comes from the government-managed Zakat fund, which receives personal donations from citizens who wish to sponsor Sharia education. No other information was found regarding other types of state-funded non-state institutions.
Contracted, non-state schools
No information was found.
2.3 Other types of schools
Homeschooling
No information was found.
Market contracted (Voucher schools)
No information was found.
Unregistered/Unrecognised schools
Some Sharia schools are not overseen by the Ministry and therefore are generally not recognised.
Refugee schools
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provides education to 51,100 Palestinian girls and boys between grades 1 and 9 across 103 different schools in refugee camps and gatherings. Although the UNRWA previously provided basic education across 118 schools, this number dropped to 42 in 2014. As of 2019, 42 UNRWA schools had undergone maintenance to prepare them to receive students as some schools had been used as shelters for internally displaced people. In areas where the schools were too damaged to be used, afternoon school shifts were held in over 40 schools lent by the government for this purpose between 2014 and 2019. Other schools were also rehabilitated for the 2019-20 academic school year in areas such as Dera’a.
Schools in IDP camps
In the north of the country, 331 camps have been established for internally displaced persons (IDPs), which include 119 functional schools. The school buildings used for teaching in the camps included cement block classrooms, tents, or prefabricated classrooms (caravans). Among the assessed schools in this study, 69 of the 72 schools were registered at the Education Directorate of the Syrian Interim Government. The Syrian Interim Government is further involved in supervising such schools. In 2018, 80% of all students in the assessed schools were between 6 and 11 years old, with three-fourths of all schools offering primary and lower secondary education exclusively (p. 5). In other contexts, IDP children are fully integrated into schools based on where they have relocated, such as in schools run by UNICEF in Idlib.
3. Governance and regulations
The Ministry of Education oversees basic education schools in the public and private sector, while further making decisions about teaching staff, academic annual plans, national exams, curricula, and textbooks. It is tasked with defining educational policy, general state plans, and implementing educational plans. It has also introduced decentralisation policies, thereby delegating authority to some Directorates of Education in different governorates. Such directorates are responsible for ensuring healthcare access is provided to schools, and licensing the opening of night classes, private primary and lower-secondary schools, and pre-schools. In non-regime-controlled territories, the opposition Ministry of Education runs a few schools with a slightly differing educational curriculum and structure, although such schools often do not have enough students and qualified teachers. As of 2017, the interim Ministry of Education operates in nine education directorates in nine governorates in non-regime-controlled areas, with up to 36 educational complexes associated with the education directorates that have been established. In addition, memorandums of understanding (MoUs) have been signed between the opposition Ministry of Education or its directorates and local civil society or foreign organisations. Such MoUs “define the basis and mechanisms for providing the support and financing the educational process in Syria.” However, even in opposition-controlled regions, the existing schools are still overseen and monitored by the Assad-led Syrian government. They also receive some government funding that covers school resources and teacher salaries.
Private higher education bodies are monitored by the Ministry of Higher Education’s Directorate of Quality and Accreditation, which is responsible for devising policies and strategies to maintain the quality of higher education, among other duties. The Ministry of Higher Education is tasked with the duty of overseeing the operation of universities, post-graduate studies centres, and intermediate/technical institutes. The Ministry of Culture (in collaboration with other organisations) coordinates and facilitates a number of key literacy activities, while the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour is responsible for the supervision of public and private daycare centres and centres working with people with disabilities. The Ministry of Religious Endowments and the Ministry of Agriculture are also involved to a lesser extent, with the former supervising the religious curriculum in state and non-state schools and the latter supervising agricultural secondary schools.
Vision: In 2014, the Syrian Commission for Population and Family Affairs released an Early Childhood Strategy for children under the age of eight that announced implementation programmes with the affiliated institutions to evaluate the extent to which the strategy is being implemented on the ground. According to the director of the Commission, Rena Khlefawi, the Commission is currently working on establishing a National Early Childhood Strategy until 2030. In accordance with a former National Early Childhood Strategy document, one of the key goals related to the development of ECCE is to increase cooperation between various sectors involved in early childhood education, including the government, private sector, and civil society actors, in order to improve the lives of children.
3.1 Regulations by distinct levels of education
Pre-primary education for children between the ages of three and five is non-compulsory and is often provided on a fee-paying basis. In addition, most such schools or educational institutions operate in the private sector and are run by women’s organisations, local community centres, unions and ministerial bodies. In 2009, only 17% of three- to five-year-olds were enrolled in ECCE bodies, and only 55% of those between the ages of zero and four had taken part in childhood development activities. More specifically, approximately 6% of three-year-olds were attending an ECCE institution whereas up to 30% of five-year-olds were doing so in 2009. Approximately 85% of all nurseries in the city operate exclusively in the private sector.
Registration and approval: A children’s nursery can be directly opened following the issuance of an official licensing decision by the Ministry of Education (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 22(1)(w)). In addition, the Ministry of Education also has the right to establish educational institutions that specifically follow it, including children’s nurseries, based on specific criteria (Art. 21). In parallel, if the person requesting a licence to establish a private school is a natural person, he or she must be an Arab Syrian or someone in his or her place while having obtained a university degree that is recognised in the Syrian Arab Republic, not being convicted of a felony or gross misdemeanour, being free of infectious diseases, being not employed in a position in the public sector and being able to fulfil the financial requirements of establishing the institution (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 2).
Regarding the infrastructures, nurseries are required to be on one floor and should not be tilted more than an angle of 10%. In addition, the nursery must contain sections/rooms that are suitable for children. The size of a classroom must not be less than 20 square meters, the courtyard must also be at least 90 20 square meters, and no more than 35 children should be placed within a single classroom (Art. 26).
Licence: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour’s Directorate of Social Affairs and Labor in Damascus is responsible for issuing licences. The exact duration of the licence’s validity is unclear. More specifically, a licensing request and certain required documents must initially be submitted to a sub-committee in the Directorate for Social Affairs. The Directorate studies this request and examines the location in which the nursery is to be established. The sub-committee then drafts a licence and submits it to the main committee in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour or the Services Directorate’s Department for Family and Childhood. The main committee proceeds to study and submit the request to the Minister, who is responsible for issuing the licence.
Profit-making: Early childhood education is available for children between the ages of 3 and 5 on a fee-paying basis. The 2004 Legislative Decree No. 55 does not prohibit profit-making as the majority of early childhood educational bodies operate within the private sector.
Taxes and subsidies: Private institutions do not receive financial aid from the government. Private pre-schools are required to pay taxes and associated fees in accordance with Law No. (24) of 2003 and Law No. (41) of 2005 on income taxes and the specifications of the Ministry of Finance (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 94).
Quality of teaching and learning
Curriculum and education standards: The Ministry of Education has drafted the curricula to be taught in nurseries or pre-schools as well as teacher guideline frameworks dating back to the scholastic year 2012/13. This applies to all ECCE institutions, including state and non-state schools.
Teaching profession: No information was found.
Fee-setting: No information was found.
Admission selection and processes: No information was found.
Policies for vulnerable groups: To accommodate the needs of children from lower-income families, the Ministry of Education has established a few public sector pre-schools that charge parents symbolic prices across different governorates. Pre-schools must also establish the necessary architectural designs to accommodate special needs children as well as a room with specific resources (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 26(14)).
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
Reporting requirements: No information was found.
Inspection: The Ministry of Education is responsible for inspecting and supervising non-state kindergartens.
Child assessment: No information was found.
Sanctions: No information was found.
Registration and approval: The applicant must hold a recognised university degree and be free of infectious diseases. In addition, he or she must not be employed in the public sector and be able to meet the financial requirements of the establishment of the institution (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 2). The government lists the documents that are needed to apply to open a private educational institution, such as primary and secondary schools, which include a civil registry form/deed, building permit, building blueprint, and a company contract (if applicable), among other documents. There are many specific infrastructure requirements concerning school buildings, for example, each classroom size for primary and secondary schools must be at least 20 square meters, except for classrooms in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo, which must be at least 18 square meters. In addition, a classroom cannot exceed 40 students (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 27).
Licence: A licence applicant must apply to the necessary Educational Directorate and receive initial approval from it and an administrative body. Then, the Committee on Private Education Buildings conducts an initial examination of the selected building and provides the licensee with feedback. After the licensee has implemented the comments, a final inspection is carried out and the application is submitted to the Ministry of Education to receive final approval before it is sent to the Directorate and the Executive Office, which issues the licence.
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH): A certain number of toilets must be made available to staff and students as well as water fountains. In addition, fire extinguishers and protection mechanisms to prevent short circuits, life ladders, direct light, and ventilation must be made available in classrooms and hallways in non-state schools (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 27).
Profit-making: The government has put in place restrictions on profit-making to prevent schools from arbitrarily increasing their tuition fees without obtaining the consent of the Ministry of Education (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 37).
Taxes and subsidies: Private basic education and secondary education schools are required to pay taxes and associated fees in accordance with the 2003 Law No. 24 and the 2005 Law No. 41 on income taxes and the specifications of the Ministry of Finance (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 94).
Quality of teaching and learning
Curriculum and education standards: The Ministry of Education has drafted the curricula for all students in the private and public sectors while also deciding on teaching staff, academic annual plans, national exam dates, and textbooks. All private institutions are required to teach the official curriculum taught in state schools (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 46). Private educational bodies are also required to teach and provide examinations in the Arabic language, with the exception of (classes for) foreign languages. In addition, private schools are allowed to teach additional books or courses in foreign languages upon obtaining the approval of the ministry (Art. 47(1)).
In private Christian schools, the education curriculum that is taught is characterised as “general and comprehensive, containing religious texts of the Bible, the life of Jesus, biblical figures and moral values”. The curriculum taught in Sharia schools is overseen and was unified by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in 2008 and consists of seven subjects: Shafi’i jurisprudence, Hadith, Prophet’s biography, recitation, interpretation, public speaking, and Islamic faith (Al Aqida). Aside from these seven subjects, the schools teach all the subjects taught in official state schools in the general secondary education literary branch.
In some schools in camps for internally displaced persons, accelerated learning programmes are offered to children that have not been out of school to ensure they have caught up to other pupils before the next academic school year begins. The curriculum that is taught therein is a revised Syrian curriculum based on the one taught in state schools, with the distinction that any information revering the Syrian government has been removed. It is unclear whether these schools provide degrees or diplomas to students in secondary education.
Textbooks and learning materials: The Ministry of Education drafts and publishes the textbooks used by students across all pre-tertiary levels in public and private schools. In non-regime-controlled territories, the opposition Ministry of Education has received some funding or aid from external actors, such as Qatar, in order to print millions of revised, pro-opposition textbooks and distribute them in opposition-controlled areas. However, in schools provided in camps for internally displaced persons, a notable challenge to the students’ education is the dearth of school materials, including stationery and books.
Teaching profession: Teachers at all levels in state and non-state institutions are required to complete a four-year bachelor’s degree, which addresses teaching methodologies, subject specialisation, and practical training. Graduates are awarded bachelor’s degrees in education, which allow them to teach up to the twelfth grade. Prospective teachers who hold bachelor’s degrees in other fields can also complete a one-year post-graduate programme leading to a teaching certificate.
Teachers in private schools should have obtained a university degree and must be certified to teach while simultaneously meeting the criteria needed to be employed in official schools (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 78(1)). Article 78(2) specifies three alternatives in case Article 78(1) is not met. These criteria include: (A) primary school teachers (from Grades 1 through 6) in private schools must have obtained a university specialisation in one of the following fields to be a classroom teacher: Arabic Language, History, Geography, Psychology, Education, Kindergarten, Trade and Economics, and Sociology. (B) For primary school teachers providing instruction in the field of Information Technology, Art, Physical Education, and Music, they are required to have at least obtained an assistant certification to indicate their specialisation in one of the abovementioned fields. (C) Alternatively, the teacher may have been deemed eligible to teach in primary or middle schools or have received a secondary certificate and taught for no less than 500 days in a kindergarten. Assistant kindergarten teachers are allowed to have obtained a high school diploma.
No additional regulation was found on teachers' salaries and working conditions. The regulations on non-state education do not explicitly state whether teachers in private schools are covered by the same provisions as those in the public service. However, the country adopted the 2010 Labour Law 17 which covers all employees in both the public and private sectors. It applies to labour relations in the private sector, Arab and foreign union companies, cooperative sector, and the mixed sector that is not covered by the Civil Servants Basic Law.
Corporal punishment: The 1949 Penal Code (Art. 185) permits parents and teachers to apply disciplinary measures to students in accordance with what is accepted by the public good. It is also permissible in the home, whereby it is considered a part of parental discipline (Art. 170). However, the Ministry of Education has released orders indicating that physical punishment should not be used in the classroom, although the law does not specifically prohibit this.
Other safety measures and COVID-19: No information was found.
Fee-setting: All private education bodies must inform the Education Directorate and students’ guardians of any additional fees or costs, such as in relation to student transportation, prior to student registration. Tuition fees can also only be increased by up to 5% every two years and the Ministry also reserves the right to review the contents of the article when necessary, such as in the case of the issuance of new laws, increases in employees’ salaries, or price hikes in fuel (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 37).
Admission selection and processes: No information was found.
Policies for vulnerable groups: All private, primary, and secondary school buildings must make the necessary architectural adjustments to accommodate special needs students everywhere throughout the building. A room with special resources must also be made available to such students (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 27).
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
School board: Licenced educational institutions affiliated with embassies or international organisations are required to establish a board of directors and determine its function in accordance with the internal organisation of the institution (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 64). Every private educational body must have a board of directors consisting of (1) the owner of the organisation or his/her representative; the director as deputy chairperson; a representative of the diplomatic mission from the foreign country; the assigned specialist overseeing the educational district; two faculty representatives; two representatives of students’ parents; a representative of secondary students; a union representative; a supervising manager; and a shareholders’ representative (Art. 75). Finally, the school board must act in an advisory capacity in the best interests of the body and in accordance with what will improve educational standards. The board must also meet at least once every educational semester and that the contents of these meetings must be recorded under the supervision of the president/head of the board and that the Directorate of Education should receive a copy of what is discussed in these meetings (Art. 76).
Reporting requirements: No information was found.
School inspection: The Ministry of Education reserves the right to oversee teaching in private educational institutions in accordance with the requirements specified in Article 47 and it reserves the right to carry out an evaluation or inspection any time it sees fit (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 11). Similarly, the Ministry of Education oversees education in private educational bodies that teach the government-approved curriculum. It also interacts with these schools according to the evaluations of education specialists and representatives and others that are assigned by the Ministry of Education to oversee all aspects of private-sector education (Art. 50).
Student assessment: No information was found.
Diplomas and degrees: The Ministry of Education is the only body that has the right to issue official public certificates. However, private educational bodies are entitled to provide their students with scholastic documentation in accordance with the classes taken by the students (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 53). Regarding the issuance of certificates for graduates of private educational institutions that do not teach the official curriculum, such documents are subject to certificate equivalency in accordance with the stipulated laws. Graduates from state-managed Sharia schools receive diplomas that are equivalent to the general literary ones, which enables them to pursue higher education in public universities. In relation to graduates from private or community-run sharia schools, the certificates received from such entities are not recognised by the official education system, despite the schools being theoretically recognised by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Hence, such graduates are often compelled to pursue tertiary education abroad.
Sanctions: The Ministry of Education reserves the right to inspect religious/Islamic (Sharia) educational bodies through appointments of specialists (Legislative Decree No. 55, 2004, Art. 62). Any institution that nurtures national discord, sectarianism, or a particular religious sect (maddhab) or repeatedly violates or refuses to comply with ministerial requirements will be subject to closure in accordance with Article 44. If any violation takes place, it must first be proved upon examining the files and records of the institution in question and inspecting the classrooms and clinics. Subsequently to this, four steps take place: 1) The Education Directorate in question warns the institution to desist from its violations; 2) The owner of the institution is subject to a fine for damages in the event that the violations continue after the first warning; 3) The institution is placed under temporary observation, whereby the licence holder can no longer oversee the management of the institution; 4) The institution is permanently closed and its registration is revoked. The last step is to take place if any of eight contingencies occur, including repeat offences, changing the educational level in the institution without ministerial approval, and no longer fulfilling any of the conditions upon which the licence was issued (Art. 101-102).
Tertiary education is regulated by the 2001 Legislative Decree No. 36, which was further amended in 2007, and defines a private, post-secondary educational institution as consisting of various types of higher-education universities, academies, colleges, institutes, and other educational bodies granted this status by the Council of Higher Education. During the academic year 2012/13, approximately 659,394 students were enrolled in public/private higher education bodies.
There are 20 private universities and 7 public ones as well as 201 technical/intermediate institutions and 6 higher institutes (higher institutes are public institutions). According to the 2001 Legislative Decree No. 36 (Art. 1), there are three types of tertiary education institutions: different types of technical, virtual, open, multimedia, digital, and distance-learning universities; academies, colleges, higher education institutions, technical institutions, and intermediate institutions; and any other educational institutions that the Council of Higher Education identifies as meeting certain criteria.
Registration and approval: The founders must apply for a licence by submitting multiple documents, including the name of the institution and location, the goals of the institution, the colleges, departments, and educational institutions in the university, proof of sufficient capital, a study on the economic benefits of the association in terms of expected resources, annual expenditure, continued sources of funding, and a land deed, among others (Legislative Decree No. 36, 2001, Art. 10). In addition, the Directorate of Private Educational Institutions will call and coordinate with different types of institutions and follow up and certify everything related to the private institutions (Art. 11). The Minister of Higher Education then asks the Higher Education Council to provide suggestions regarding the approval or rejection of the request (Art. 12), before the former decides as to whether the licence should be issued (Art. 16).
Licence: The Ministry of Higher Education issues licences to applicants who wish to establish private higher educational bodies. The Decree does not mention the duration of the licence and does not describe the procedure for renewing the application (Legislative Decree No. 36, 2001, Art. 12-14).
Profit-making: No information was found.
Taxes and subsidies: The tools, machines, equipment, and other educational materials (outlined in Article 25) needed for training as well as for scientific and educational purposes are not to be taxed or subject to any financial, national, or customs fees (Legislative Decree No. 36, 2001, Art. 37).
Quality of teaching and learning
Curriculum and education standards: The length and duration of each higher education degree differs, with associate degrees requiring two years, bachelor’s degrees necessitating four or more years, master’s degrees requiring two years, and doctoral degrees at least three years. Additional languages can be taught in private institutions as opposed to public ones.
Teaching profession: Education specialists and faculty members in educational bodies are hired in accordance with rules set out by the administration of each type of organisation, while further requiring the approval of the Higher Education Council (Legislative Decree No. 36, 2001, Art. 23). In addition, the number of hired faculty members must be suitable to the number of students that are in the organisation (Art. 26).
Fee-setting: No regulation was found on fee-setting. The cost of studying at a private institution ranges between 39.75 USD (50,000 SYP) and 198.75 USD (250,000 SYP) (based on the exchange rate of June 18, 2021).
Admission selection and processes: Students with a secondary diploma, certificate from an institute, or a university degree are granted the right to be accepted to a higher education institution. The general requirements for accepting students, registering them, testing them, and other matters are further determined by the internal organisation of the institution in question (Legislative Decree No. 36, 2001, Art. 29).
The Ministry of Education’s centralized University Admissions Committee sends the students to different universities or higher education institutions, considering their preferences and exam scores. In addition, national exam scores required to be admitted to specific programmes differ, with higher scores typically being required for the faculties of architecture, medicine, natural sciences, and dentistry.
Quality assurance, monitoring and accountability
Board: In Each educational institution’s board is to be composed of a council of trustees or some other organisational council or its equivalent (Legislative Decree No. 36, 2001, Art. 18). The council of trustees is to consist of the founding members in line with the internal organisation of the institution, including the head of the institution, as well as (optionally) some experts or public figures (Art. 19). The council of the institution further consists of the president/head of the institution, its secretary, vice president, college deans, and potentially other experts or public figures as determined by the council of trustees (Art. 21). The council of the institution is additionally tasked with (1) determining the acceptance conditions (for students) annually, (2) outlining rules for the selection of deans and their representatives and heads and department, and (3) appointing faculty members.
Reporting requirements: Every higher-level private or public educational institution is expected to have its own internal system for quality assurance and accountability.
Inspection: Despite being identified as a project in the Ministry of Higher Education’s five-year plan, the proposed National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation body does not exist. However, the Ministry of Higher Education’s Quality and Accreditation Directorate is responsible for evaluating and overseeing the accreditation of private tertiary institutions.
Student assessment: During their studies, students are assessed in accordance with their final exam scores per subject. Some programmes also require students to complete an internship and master’s programs also necessitate that a final exam is to be taken and a dissertation is to be written. Students also cannot fail more than four subjects and must retake them before they can progress from one academic year to the following one.
Diplomas and degrees: The 2009 Law No. 1 of 5/1/2009 on the Issuance of Degrees within private universities (Art. 1) specifies that private institutions can enter into cooperation agreements with accredited, non-Syrian tertiary institutions to issue academic degrees and diplomas. In addition, specific regulations must be included in these agreements pertaining to the administration of the degrees and the educational system that exists, which is incumbent upon receiving the approval of the Council of Higher Education and a final affirmation from the Minister of Higher Education (Art. 2).
Sanctions: Institutional closures are not addressed in Legislative Decree No. (36) (2001).
3.2 Supplementary private tutoring
Shadow education is considered a widespread phenomenon that has not been thoroughly documented. It manifests in the form of private one-on-one tutoring as well as taking classes in the summer or weekend at particular institutions that teach a certain curriculum. While private tutoring is available to students who are behind in their school work, it is only an option for people who can afford it. As such, students who have missed school due to the crisis are often not provided with remedial classes and can only catch up through the above-mentioned courses if they can pay for them.
No information was found.
Financial operation and quality
No information was found.
No information was found.
This profile has been drafted by the Al Qasimi Foundation to support the PEER evidence base for the 2021/2 GEM Report on non-state actors in education.
