According to Kurdpress, 15 years after the start of official Kurdish language education in the Kurdish areas of Syria, the future of this education has become one of the main axes of the dispute between the autonomous administration of North and East Syria and the transitional government of Damascus. This dispute has entered a new stage with the "Kurdish Language Day" ceremony.

Officials of the autonomous administration have told an English-language publication in the United States that in negotiations with the Syrian transitional government, they want to guarantee the right to education in the mother tongue in the new constitution, and have rejected Damascus' proposal to limit Kurdish language education to two hours a week.

At the same time, marches and programs were held in the cities of the north and east of Syria on the occasion of May 15, Kurdish Language Day, in which the participants demanded the recognition of the Kurdish language, the guarantee of education in this language and its registration as one of the official languages ​​of Syria.

Samira Haj Ali, the co-chairman of the Education Board of the Autonomous Administration, emphasized that Kurdish language education has been a "historical turning point" for Syrian Kurds after being banned and marginalized for decades during the Baath party rule.

He said that the issue is not limited to language education, but is related to Kurdish identity and culture; An identity that has faced denial and prohibition policies for decades.

Farid Khalil, the director of the media department of the Kurdish Language Foundation, also said that during the previous government, even speaking Kurdish or carrying a Kurdish book could lead to the arrest of people. He mentioned the recent words of Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, who said that he was arrested as a child for carrying a Kurdish book.

According to Farid Khalil, Syrian Kurds, despite years of pressure and repression, kept their mother tongue and continued to teach Kurdish language through secret cultural and educational activities before 2011.

According to the authorities of the autonomous administration, the beginning of the self-government of the Kurdish regions of Syria on July 19, 2012 was the beginning of the "Kurdish language revolution" in Syria; The period in which the Kurdish language was officially introduced to schools for the first time in the history of this country.

In the first stage, three lessons were taught in Kurdish and the goal was to create an educational foundation for Kurdish students. Then, Kurdish education was gradually expanded from elementary school to university, and now this language is used in schools, universities, administrative institutions, medical centers and many public sectors in the north and east of Syria.

Samira Haj Ali says that Kurdish schools have played an important role in preserving Kurdish culture, identity and political awareness, and the graduates of this educational system have found a deeper connection with the Kurdish language and identity.

At the same time, the issue of recognition of educational qualifications issued in the areas under the control of the autonomous administration has become one of the challenges and axes of the negotiations with the transitional government of Syria.

One of the most important demands of Syrian Kurds is to register the Kurdish language as an official language in the future constitution of this country.

Decree No. 13 has also specified that the teaching of the Kurdish language in the Kurdish areas will be only two hours a week, which has been strongly opposed by the Kurdish authorities.

Samira Haj Ali said: "Students in Kurdish regions have been studying Kurdish for fifteen years, and limiting it to two hours a week is unacceptable."

However, he considered allocating two hours of Kurdish language education in other Syrian provinces as a positive step that can give Kurds living in other Syrian regions the opportunity to learn their mother tongue.

Human rights activists and Syrian civil institutions also emphasize that the right to education in the mother tongue is a guaranteed right in international conventions, and the continuation of restrictions against the Kurdish language will mean the continuation of exclusion and denial policies against the Kurds.

In this regard, the "Syrians for Truth and Justice" organization, by publishing a statement signed by 27 Syrian organizations, condemned the action of the Damascus authorities in removing the Kurdish language from the Haskeh courthouse sign.

The signatories of this statement declared that the removal of the Kurdish language violates the cultural and linguistic rights of Syrian citizens and demanded the recognition of the Kurdish language in the constitution and the guarantee of the right to education in the mother tongue for all Syrian ethnic groups and communities, including Assyrians, Armenians and Circassians.

According to the statistics published by the Board of Education of the Autonomous Administration, the teaching of the Kurdish language in the north and east of Syria has expanded significantly in recent years.

More than 6,200 Kurdish language teachers and about 60,000 students are engaged in training in 1,790 schools in Jazere region of Haskeh province. In Kobani, 2,650 Kurdish language teachers teach about 43,500 students in 300 schools.