The Media Line: As-Suwayda’s Schoolchildren Become Pawns in Political Struggle Over Exams 

As-Suwayda’s Schoolchildren Become Pawns in Political Struggle Over Exams 

Muhannad Sharrouf, a political activist from As-Suwayda, told TML: “They are not merely depriving them of an exam; they are threatening their future and pushing another generation toward further loss, chaos and collapse.” 

By Rizik Alabi / The Media Line 

[DAMASCUS] Before her exams, Sally—a pseudonym used at her request—left Syria’s southern As-Suwayda province and moved to a government-controlled area in the province’s countryside, where she stayed with a relative.  

It was not a family visit. She left because she feared that if she remained in As-Suwayda, she might not be allowed to reach her examination center.  

“I left before the exams because we knew there was a strong possibility that we would be prevented from reaching the examination centers,” Sally told The Media Line.  

Her decision illustrates a crisis that has turned what should be a routine educational process into another arena of the political struggle between Damascus and local forces in As-Suwayda.  

Thousands of students have been unable to sit for official exams amid a dispute over where the tests should be held and who should supervise them. The Syrian government insists that the exams be administered by the Ministry of Education at officially designated centers, while local forces have demanded centers closer to where students live and objected to sending them into government-controlled territory.  

For the students, the dispute could cost them an academic year.  

The father of one student told The Media Line that his son had spent weeks preparing but was unable to reach his examination center.  

The father, who asked that his name be withheld for security reasons, accused members of the National Guard a local armed formation aligned with Druze spiritual leader Sheik Hikmat al-Hijri —of preventing students from leaving.  

He said the restrictions reflected the local forces’ broader refusal to deal with the government in Damascus or recognize its institutions.  

Families in As-Suwayda, however, are themselves divided.  

Some have refused to send their children to centers in government-controlled areas, citing security concerns and the tense political situation. Others insist their children should be allowed to take the official exams regardless of the dispute between Damascus and the province’s local authorities.  

More than 13,000 students in As-Suwayda were registered for basic education and secondary school certificate examinations during the first examination session. Around 2,000 were able to take their exams, leaving approximately 11,000 unable to.  

Authorities then organized a special examination session intended to give those students another chance.  

But when the special session began on August 29, only around 150 students reached the designated centers in northern rural As-Suwayda.  

Those who made it are continuing their exams under a schedule running through September 10. Thousands of others remain outside examination halls.  

The problem is not simply transportation.  

Efforts to reach an agreement allowing the exams to be held inside As-Suwayda city under the Ministry of Education’s supervision failed. The government instead established centers in northern parts of the province under its control.  

Local groups rejected those locations and demanded that the exams be conducted closer to students’ homes, citing security risks and the distance students from some villages would have to travel.  

The disagreement quickly became part of a much larger question: Who has the authority to administer public institutions in As-Suwayda?  

For Damascus, official exams must remain under the authority of state institutions. For local forces that reject greater government control over the province, sending students to government-run centers carries political and security implications.  

The National Guard has denied preventing students from reaching the examination centers. It described what happened as a “popular movement” led by families unwilling to send their children into government-controlled areas and accused Damascus of politicizing education by placing examination centers far from students’ homes.  

But an earlier statement by the Shahba Operations Room, which is affiliated with the National Guard, complicates that denial.  

Before the exams began, the operations room announced that roads would be closed to vehicles transporting students to the centers designated by the Education Ministry. It warned drivers against transporting students and threatened to impound vehicles that violated the order.  

That announcement suggests that opposition to the government’s examination arrangements went beyond individual decisions by concerned families and included measures that could physically obstruct students who wanted to attend.  

The Syrian Ministry of Education, meanwhile, said the special session was organized specifically to protect the rights of As-Suwayda students who had missed the previous round of exams.  

In a press statement, the ministry said it prepared examination centers in northern rural As-Suwayda and provided staff, proctors, and the materials required to conduct the tests.  

The ministry expressed regret that not all students were able to reach the centers and said the examinations would continue as scheduled rather than be canceled.  

According to the government, armed groups prevented large numbers of students from reaching the centers. Authorities delayed the start of the examinations by several hours on the first day to give more students time to arrive.  

Yet critics of Damascus also question why the government did not establish examination centers closer to the thousands of affected students, given As-Suwayda’s exceptional security and political circumstances.  

The result is a situation in which both sides accuse the other of politicizing education.  

Damascus argues that local armed groups are obstructing official exams because they reject state institutions. Local forces accuse the government of using the examination arrangements to assert political and administrative authority over the province.  

The students are caught between them.  

The dispute reflects a much broader struggle over As-Suwayda’s relationship with Syria’s central government.  

Relations between Damascus and local forces have remained tense since deadly fighting in the province in July 2025. As-Suwayda city and other parts of the province remain under the control of local armed groups, while Syrian authorities are seeking to extend state institutions across the country.  

Against that backdrop, disputes over security, administration and public services increasingly carry political significance.  

Education has now become part of that struggle.  

Muhannad Sharrouf, a political activist from As-Suwayda, warned that preventing young people from completing their education could have consequences long after the current political confrontation ends.  

“Depriving an entire generation of education does not end at the school gates,” Sharrouf told The Media Line. “Its effects extend to unemployment, poverty, marginalization, and declining prospects for stability, and society as a whole pays the price.”  

He linked the current crisis to the damage already inflicted on Syrian education by years of war.  

Children who were 10 or younger when the conflict began are now adults in their mid-20s, he said, after growing up through years in which war disrupted education, training, and opportunities to build stable futures.  

“Anyone who prevents As-Suwayda’s students from reaching their examination centers and taking their exams is committing a grave wrong against the students, their families, their community and their country,” Sharrouf said.  

“They are not merely depriving them of an exam; they are threatening their future and pushing another generation toward further loss, chaos and collapse.”  

The current dispute shows how unresolved questions of authority in As-Suwayda can affect even services that would normally be expected to remain outside political confrontation.  

There are legitimate security questions surrounding the movement of students across areas controlled by rival forces, and some families have independently decided that sending their children to government-controlled areas is too dangerous.  

But other students want to take the exams, and the earlier threat by a National Guard-affiliated operations room to stop vehicles transporting them raises a different question: whether political opposition to Damascus should determine whether a student can reach an examination hall.  

Sally avoided that dilemma by leaving before the exams began.  

Thousands of her fellow students did not.  

For them, an exam that should have tested what they learned in school has instead become a test of something entirely different: whether Damascus and As-Suwayda’s local forces can keep their political struggle from determining the future of a generation.