Qamishli, Syria -- The 2016-2017 school year has started in Northern Syria -- Rojava (NSR), and the self-administration has introduced a brand new Kurdish curriculum. According to the Rojava's Education Commission, the old Ba'athist curriculum has been replaced. Primary education will now be taught in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac-Assyrian. The overwhelming majority of the schools in Syria's northeastern Hasakah Governorate are controlled by the NSR administration. The exceptions are a handful of schools inside regime-held areas and a number of private Christian schools in Hasakah and Qamishli.

Nisirin Anez, a school director in Qamishli said: "Actually many students started their education in the area this year. And many of them had to stop for years due to the ongoing crisis while others had to go to private schools. Now a large number of those students are registered at the public schools [of Rojava]." Mihemed Salih Abdo, Co-Chair of the Rojava Education Committee, told ARA News that the regime's curriculum has been removed completely from the primary schools of Jazira Canton. "Three curriculums have replaced the old one, to include teaching in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Assyrian," Abdo said.