8 Sidon schools to accommodate Syrian pupils in area

The head of the Education and Culture parliamentary committee, Sidon MP Bahia Hariri, held a meeting Wednesday with private school principals in Majdalyoun to follow up on plans to accommodate Syrian refugee students for the coming school year. Many school-aged Syrians who fled have fled the ongoing conflict in Syria are now residing in the city of Sidon and its camps. Hariri’s meeting with the principals of schools that have shown willingness to receive Syrian refugees took place in the presence of the coordinator of Sidon’s school network, Nabil Bawwab, and the head of the union of organizations offering aid to Syrian refugees in Sidon, Kamel Kazbar. After Bawwab and Kazbar each discussed the preparations that have been made to secure classroom places for the Syrian students in coordination with the principals, it was decided that the schools would start receiving those between the ages of 5 and 12 (from kindergarten to sixth grade). It was also agreed that the students would be taught English, Arabic and math in addition to extracurricular activities. The Syrian curriculum will be adopted from grade one to grade four. Grades five and six will not be taught according to the Syrian curriculum. Agreement was also reached at the meeting on how the schools would divide the intake of Syrian students. The 75 kindergarten-age children will be divided between the Evangelical Arts School and Jinan High School. The 90 first graders will go to Bahaeddine Hariri School. Second graders, of which there are 78, will go to Forqan High School. Sixty-three third graders will be enrolled at the Islamic Makassed High School for Boys. Forty-eight fourth graders will go to Rafik Hariri High School, and 51 fifth graders will go to Sidoun School. Finally, 49 sixth graders will attend Sidon’s international high school. (daily star)