After years of displacement, Syrian Christians return home as children go back to schools

Christian schools in Syria are resuming their educational role after years of disruption, as families displaced by the war return to their hometowns following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, Anadolu reports.

Some of the schools had been seized by the former regime, while others were transformed into shelters for people displaced from their homes by bombardment and security crackdowns.

Children from Christian families returning to their communities have also begun re-enrolling in schools where they studied before years of displacement interrupted their education.

Christian clergy members say the reopening of the schools can help restore their role in promoting peaceful coexistence, education and development, while expressing hope for a Syria where freedoms and rights are protected.

‘Rights returned to their owners’

Father Lucas Bashrafa, priest of the church in Qunaya village in the Idlib countryside, said the village school belongs to the Franciscan friars and has resumed its role after years of closure.

“Rights have returned to their owners. The school was renovated over nearly two years and is now ready to resume education,” Bashrafa told Anadolu.

“The school was seized by Syria’s now-dissolved Baath Party in 1971, placing the building under the control of the former regime,” he said.

During the years of war, the building was turned into a shelter for displaced people forced to flee their communities because of bombardment by the former regime’s forces in Idlib and its countryside, he said, adding that it remained in use as a shelter for 10 years.

“I hope the school will once again become a center for peaceful coexistence, education and development,” Bashrafa said.

“The fundamental mission of the Franciscan friars in the region is to promote love and peace among people and villages,” he said.

“The school had previously been an important educational center for residents of surrounding villages,” he added.

“Some of the teachers who are teaching at the school today were once students here,” Bashrafa said.

He expressed hope that Syria would return to days “when education, development, freedom and rights are protected and restored to their owners.”

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“We thank God for this blessing and for this new step in our lives,” he added.

Qunaya was among several Christian villages that experienced widespread displacement during the war waged by the Assad regime from 2011 to 2024.

Around 20,000 people lived in the predominantly Christian villages of Ghassaniyeh, Yacoubiyah, Jdeideh and Qunaya in western Idlib before the war began.

Between 2013 and 2015, amid some of the harshest years of the conflict, intensive bombardment by former regime forces and accompanying clashes forced most residents to flee, reducing the remaining Christian population to around 500.

Students return to classrooms

Hanna Jalf, a student from Qunaya, told Anadolu that she and her family fled to the central city of Hama after the war began before returning to their village following the fall of the former regime.

She said she resumed her education after returning home.

“I studied ninth grade here and passed. I got a good result and moved on to 10th grade,” she said.

Jalf said conditions in Qunaya are good now and encouraged other families who have not yet returned to come back to their homes.

Syria’s new government is also working to rehabilitate Christian schools across the country to restore their educational role.

Last month, Emergency and Disaster Management Minister Raed al-Saleh announced the reopening of the Holy Land School in the Jisr al-Shughur area of Idlib countryside after it had been closed for nearly 60 years.

“This scene is part of the Syria we dreamed of … a Syria for all its people,” Saleh said at the time.

The reopening was part of a series of school openings in Idlib province amid efforts to rehabilitate educational infrastructure in the country.

On Dec. 8, 2024, Syrian opposition forces entered Damascus and announced the overthrow of Assad’s regime, ending his rule from 2000 to 2024. Assad had inherited power from his father, Hafez Assad, who ruled from 1970 to 2000.

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