Syrian children celebrate as school year ends in Turkey

By Anadolu Agency staff

ANKARA (AA) - As the Turkish summer recess started on Friday, Syrian children attending schools across the country have been celebrating at end-of-term report ceremonies.

In Ankara's Nazife Hatun Primary School, the first ceremony was organized for 812 Syrian children.

Speaking at a ceremony earlier this week, Ercan Demirci, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, said there were about one million Syrian children of school age in Turkey.

"As the Ministry of Education, we are intensely working for these children to attend school. Our goal is to reach all the children," he said.

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides and UNICEF’s director of emergency programs Afshan Khan, also attended the ceremony.

Stylianides said Turkey had made a great commitment to help refugee children to continue schooling.

In southeastern Sanliurfa, a total number of 60,000 Syrian children received their school reports during different ceremonies across the city.

One of these ceremonies was held in Akcakale with 9,000 Syrian children at the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency Akcakale Suleyman Sah Accomodation facility.

Meanwhile in southeastern Kilis, 6,372 Syrian students attended their ceremony, performing dances and playing games.

Mehmet Sunbul, director of the Osmaniye Provincial Directorate of Education, said upcoming language courses would start to prepare Syrian students for Turkish schools.

"Our Turkish courses will be especially for the 1st, 5th and 9th grade students as they have to attend Turkish schools. After September 1 these students will continue at regular schools," he said.

Another ceremony was held in northwestern Sakarya province where 285 children attended at a local temporary education center to receive their reports.

Ali Ciydem, director of the education center, told an Anadolu Agency correspondent it served as a bridge between Syrian and Turkish schools.

"Our students here consist of children who had to take a long break from their education due to the war in their countries. Our Turkish teachers teach only Turkish and the other branch courses are given in Arabic," he said.