Education in Syria

With a growing population, Syria has a good basic education system. Since 2000 the Government of Syria has significantly increased the expenditure on education 1 to 6. In 2002, elementary and primary education were combined into one basic education stage and education was made compulsory and free from grades 1 to 9.

Education is free and compulsory from ages 7 to 15.Arabic is the medium of instruction in the Syrian Arab Republic. English and French are taught from grade 1 in the basic learning stage as the primary second language.

According to the 2007 census, 98 percent of schools in Syria are public(state run), 1.8 percent are private, and 0.2 percent are United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools for children who are refugees.

In 2007, there were 8 million students in the education system of Syria (4 million in basic education, 1.4 million in secondary and 2.3 million in tertiary). Given the current growth rate in the school age population, it is projected that by 2015, the education system in Syria will need to cater to an additional 1 million students in basic and secondary education. The school system in Syria is divided into basic and secondary education levels:

1st to 6th grade: Primary Education Level (Arabic: تعليم أساسي حلقة أولى‎‎;taelim 'asasi halqat 'uwlaa)

7th to 9th grade: Pre- Secondary Education Level (Arabic: تعليم أساسي حلقة ثانية‎‎; taelim 'asasi halqat thany )

10th to 12th grade: Upper Secondary Education (Arabic: Arabic: التعليم الثانوي‎‎; al-taelim ath-thanui), which is the equivalent of High School.

The Government of Syria is also taking charge of providing pre-primary or early childhood education. Up until the early 1990s, ECCE programs were provided by mostly non-governmental institutions, of which few belonged to the government sector, while others were either private, or run by the Teacher's Syndicate, General Union of workers (GUW) or the Women's Federation.

In 1990 only 5 percent of the children between the ages of 3 and 5 were enrolled in 793 kindergartens. Ten years later 7.8 percent of that age group was enrolled. Furthermore, the data from the Syrian Ministry of Education shows an increase in the number of kindergartens from 1096 to 1475 in 2004.

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