With little aid, Syria’s Raqqa struggles to revive schools

In the Syrian city of Raqqa, children wear hats, scarves and coats to guard against the winter cold as they struggle to catch up on years of lost learning in a classroom with no doors or glazed windows. (Source: Reuters)

More than a year since the United States and its allies defeated Islamic State at Raqqa, many of the city’s schools still look like battlefields with buildings left lying in rubble and playgrounds dotted with wrecked cars. (Source: Reuters)

Islamic State, which turned Raqqa into the Syrian headquarters of its self-declared “caliphate”, kept schools shut as it tried to impose its ultra-radical vision of Islam through its own education system. (Source: Reuters)

Since Islamic State’s defeat there in October 2017, 44 schools have reopened with 45,000 children enrolled, said Ali al-Shannan, the head of the education council set up by civilian authorities in Raqqa. (Source: Reuters)

The children have lost out on five years of schooling. (Source: Reuters)

Islamic State used Raqqa’s schools - like much of the city - for military purposes, digging tunnels under some of them. Some of the schools were hit by air strikes, Raqqa residents say. (Source: Reuters)

As winter sets in, the dilapidated state of the schools is leading some children to miss out on yet more lessons. (Source: Reuters)

In Raqqa, UNICEF is providing textbooks to more than 121,000 children so they can get a start while waiting for a classroom. (Source: Reuters)

At Uqba bin Nafie school, one classroom looks out onto a wrecked building, its floors collapsed on top of each other and a car flipped on its side nearby. In the yard, children stand around large pools of dirty water while others eat snacks by the crumpled wreckage of another vehicle. (Source: Reuters)

Ayman al-Qurt, the director of at Uqba bin Nafie school, says attendance in one of his classes is just 11 of 38 pupils “because of the bad state of the school and the bad weather”. “Is this not a pity?” (Source: Reuters)