The Assyrian language is one of the oldest living Semitic languages and forms the cornerstone of the identity of the Assyrian people. In Iraq, the government of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq (KRI) has shown notable commitment to preserving this linguistic and cultural heritage by incorporating Assyrian into school curricula within full Assyrian-language instruction at educational institutions. Teaching the Assyrian language (Sureth/??????) in Iraq in general, and in the KRI in particular, is part of a broader societal and cultural effort to protect the national, linguistic, and historical identity of the Christian Assyrian people.

Following the political and social changes that reshaped Iraq from the early 1990s onward, local and community-driven initiatives began integrating Assyrian into both formal and informal education systems. For decades, however, the language had been excluded from public education, i.e. from the establishment of the Iraqi state in 1921 until 1990. Assyrians were politically and culturally marginalized. The inclusion of the Assyrian language in the Iraqi Constitution, and its recognition as one of Iraq's recognized languages under Article 4, paragraph 4, marked a significant step toward reviving this ancient language in the land of Beth Nahrain (Mesopotamia).

Scenes from inside classrooms today capture a new generation of boys and girls learning the language of their ancestors -- speaking it, reading it, and writing it. Figures obtained by the 964 Network paint a promising picture as well: more than 15,000 students are currently enrolled in Assyrian education programs, in one form or the other, across Iraq. These students are divided into two groups; The first group studies Assyrian as a language subject within schools that teach primarily in one of the two official languages in Iraq, i.e. Arabic and Kurdish. The second group follows a full Assyrian-medium curriculum from first grade through the end of high school. Roughly 3,500 of these students are in the Kurdistan Region, while the majority -- about 11,000 -- are based in the Nineveh Governate. The rest are spread across the country across Baghdad (1,109 students), Kerkeslokh (Kirkuk) (448), and Basra.

1 – The Federal Government

The General Directorate of Assyrian Studies was established within Iraq's Federal Ministry of Education on 8 July 2012, with the purpose of introducing the Assyrian language as a school subject in Baghdad, Basra, Kerkeslokh, and Nineveh -- provinces that include Christian student populations. In Basra, however, the situation remains unique: due to the federal government's refusal to approve new appointments for Assyrian-language teachers, local churches have stepped in to help by assigning clergy members to provide supplementary lessons.

Unlike several schools in the KRI, which offer full Assyrian-language instruction, schools in the federal territories teach Assyrian only as a single subject within an otherwise Arabic-language curriculum.

1.a – Organizational Structure

The General Directorate of Assyrian Education, headquartered in Baghdad, oversees Assyrian-language education across Iraq through a network of regional departments and local offices (which also support displaced communities). Its structure includes the following divisions:

1. Nineveh Education Department for Assyrian Studies -- supervises around 100 schools offering Assyrian instruction.
2. Hamdaniya Education Unit for Assyrian Studies -- covering schools in Baghdeda, Bartella, Karamlesh.
3. Tel Kef Education Department for Assyrian Studies -- Tel Kef, Batnaya, Telleskof, Alqosh.
4. Bashiqa Education Branch for Assyrian Studies -- Bashiqa, Bahzani, Mergi, al-Faf, al-Baraka, al-Maghara.
5. Kirkuk Education Department for Assyrian Studies -- oversees Assyrian-language instruction across all of Kirkuk Governorate.
6. Basra Education Department for Assyrian Studies -- covers all neighborhoods of Basra, where Assyrian is taught as part of local education initiatives.

1.b – Representative Offices

The representative offices constitute a lower administrative level than the regional departments. They are located in the provinces that received displaced populations -- Arba'ilo (Erbil) and Nohadra (Duhok). Their main responsibilities include maintaining direct communication with supervisors and teachers, as well as organizing seminars, exhibitions, educational workshops, and handicraft activities that promote the teaching and preservation of the Assyrian language and heritage.

1.c – Department of Literacy

This department operates in Baghdeda under the name "Mar Jacob of Serugh Center for Assyrian Literacy," affiliated with the Baghdeda Department of Assyrian Education. Its mission is to offer language-learning courses in Assyrian for anyone wishing to study the language. The center follows a structured curriculum divided into multiple educational levels, and graduates of the annual courses receive certificates that qualify them to advance to higher stages.

The initiative primarily aims to encourage parents of students to learn Assyrian, thereby fostering cooperation between the home front and school to enhance students' proficiency. The program targets learners aged 15 to 75 years and has organized numerous courses, particularly during the displacement period, when most of the displaced community, fleeing ISIS, had settled in Ankawa.

1.d – Educational Staff

Teachers and instructors of the Assyrian language are appointed by the Ministries of Education of both the Federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.

In practice, these appointments are nominated through the Assyrian Democratic Movement, which is widely regarded as the political entity overseeing the affairs and administration of the General Directorate of Assyrian Education.

1.e – Curriculum

There is an official government curriculum from the first to the sixth grade of primary school, but it is not included in the Baccalaureate exam. As for the intermediate and secondary stages, they lack a curriculum from the central government, which necessitated relying on the KRI curriculum. The first intermediate grade curriculum of the KRI is taught for the first, second, and third intermediate grades. Meanwhile, the second intermediate grade curriculum of the KRI is used for the fourth, fifth, and sixth secondary grades in the central government schools.

The Assyrian language curriculum textbooks are currently printed by the federal government at the expense of the Iraqi state through the General Directorate of Assyrian Education in Baghdad and the Assyrian Education Directorate in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Prior to 2024, churches used to sponsor, annually, the printing of Assyrian textbooks, with the name of the contributing church clearly indicated on each book. Additionally, some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) funded the printing of Assyrian curricula. If a textbook does not show a sponsoring entity, it means that an NGO was responsible for its production.

1.f – Class Hours

Students receive two weekly classes dedicated to the Assyrian language and two classes in Christian religious education. In practice, the religious classes often receive limited attention, especially when the school principal is not Christian, and they may be scheduled as the last period of the day.

A current proposal suggests holding one Assyrian-language class in person at the school and the second session online, to improve accessibility and engagement.

2 – Challenges and Obstacles

2.a – Curriculum and Teaching Challenges:

1. Limited modern educational resources: Despite past efforts in printing textbooks, there is a pressing need for updated curricula that integrate active learning methods and modern technology;
2. Shortage of qualified teachers: There are few educators who combine strong linguistic competence with modern pedagogical skills, and certified training programs in Assyrian education are rare;
3. Dialectal diversity: Variations between Assyrian dialects raise methodological questions about which standard should be used in textbooks;
4. Funding and sustainability: Heavy reliance on community or church support makes Assyrian educational programs vulnerable to financial fluctuations;
5. Parents' limited knowledge of the Assyrian language: Many of the students' families do not speak Assyrian, which prevents students from receiving support at home, unlike in other subjects such as mathematics or Arabic.
6. Time gaps between lessons: With only one Assyrian lesson per week, students often forget material by the following week, especially since the school week is only four days long;
7. Lack of supervision: Supervisors and officials often treat Assyrian teaching as merely a job rather than a national or cultural responsibility, resulting in minimal follow-up;
8. Random teacher assignments: Teachers may come from unrelated professions -- engineers, administrators, farmers, or even church clergy -- motivated primarily by salary rather than qualifications;
9. Script differences: Assyrian instruction includes both Eastern and Western scripts. Students moving between schools using different scripts face comprehension difficulties;
10. Dialect transition issues: Students transferring from schools without Assyrian instruction to those with it encounter challenges adapting to new dialects or scripts;
11. Proposed mixed-script teaching: Suggestions to dedicate ten minutes of each lesson to the alternate script may confuse students further;
12. Insufficient weekly hours: Two lessons per week are not enough to teach an ancient language like Assyrian;
13. Some materials contain linguistic errors between Eastern and Western scripts;
14. Low student numbers: In schools with few Assyrian students, any teacher from the Christian staff may be temporarily assigned to teach Assyrian or Christian education merely to fulfill minimal requirements, undermining instruction quality;
15. Declining number of Assyrian native speakers;
16. Insufficient official support: Governmental backing is inadequate, largely due to nationalist or discriminatory policies in the region;
17. Emigration of Assyrians: Many Assyrians have migrated abroad due to persecution, leading to adoption of the host country's language and neglect of their mother tongue;
18. Limited digital initiatives: Only modest efforts have been made using technology or social media to develop Assyrian-language programs;
19. Lack of continuous teacher training: There is a serious deficiency in ongoing professional development for educators who teach Assyrian.

2.b Available Opportunities

There are several strengths and tangible achievements that should be utilized, including:

1. Institutional Continuity: The stability of Assyrian language education in the region since 1991, followed by expansion into numerous schools (sources indicate dozens of specialized schools and local initiatives to preserve the language);
2. Students' Multilingualism: The success of the multilingual education model that teaches Assyrian alongside Kurdish, Arabic, and English -- enhancing students' academic and professional integration;
3. Organizing seminars and discussions with specialists in the field of education, and listening to obstacles, weaknesses, and challenges they face;
4. Urging parents to attend Assyrian literacy courses organized by some language institutions, so they can assist their children and relatives in learning the language;
5. Emphasizing the teaching of Assyrian through satellite channels belonging to our community, by offering weekly lessons and providing incentives for participants.

In 2007, curricula were developed by the central government; however, the materials were too difficult, which led to their revision by committees composed of education experts and clergy.

6. It is preferable to involve priests and monks in Assyrian language education today, as they are proficient in Assyrian;
7. Opening Assyrian language departments in the Colleges of Languages at universities in Kerkeslokh (Kirkuk), Basra, and other Iraqi provinces -- as it is the language of Beth Nahrain (Mesopotamia).

3 – Kurdistan Region in Iraq

3.a – Structure:Historical and Institutional Overview

Efforts to organize Assyrian-language education began to take shape in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq during the 1990s, following the establishment of a more flexible administrative environment compared to the rest of Iraq at that time. Specialized private and public schools were founded, and directorates and institutions were established to focus on developing curricula, publishing materials, and supervising Assyrian-language education. University departments were also opened to train Assyrian-language teachers in regional universities such as Dohuk University and Salahaddin University. There is also an academic presence at the university level through departments and programs dedicated to Assyrian studies.

The KRI has schools that apply a full Assyrian-language curriculum across all subjects. The Region was a pioneer in introducing the Assyrian language in education and publishing complete Assyrian textbooks as early as 1996. However, Baghdad took the lead at the university level when it opened the first Assyrian Language Department in the College of Languages in 2004. Salahaddin University followed in 2016 by establishing a Assyrian Language Department within its College of Education. Later, the University of Mosul joined in 2025, along with Dohuk University, which established a Assyrian Department in the same year.

There are two main directorates in the KRI related to Assyrian affairs:

1. The General Directorate of Assyrian Education: Its duties include establishing schools, preparing curricula, training teaching staff, and organizing annual qualification and training courses for teachers as part of ongoing professional development.
2. The General Directorate of Assyrian Culture: Its responsibilities involve organizing festivals, literary and cultural evenings, publishing cultural books, and distributing them.

3.b – Number of Schools

There are 28 schools in total, all of which teach all subjects in the Assyrian language -- including literature, grammar, reading, physics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, history, geography, and more. In the table below data is provided about most of the Assyrian-curriculum schools in the KRI. In addition, students also study:Kurdish, Arabic, English.

3.c – Curriculum Content: Objectives and Core Components

The Assyrian curricula vary according to the educational level (primary -- intermediate -- secondary), but they share a set of fundamental objectives:

1. Mastery of Reading and Writing in Assyrian Script: Teaching the alphabet, phonetic segmentation rules, and spelling skills;
2. Familiarity with Religious and Literary Heritage: Exposure to selected religious texts, hymns, traditional stories, and simplified historical readings;
3. Development of Oral Communication Skills: Practice through daily dialogues, memorization of songs, and short speeches;
4. Multilingual Education: Assyrian is taught alongside the Region's other main languages -- Kurdish, Arabic, and English -- aiming to produce multilingual students capable of integrating both locally and professionally.

The KRI General Directorate of Assyrian Education has organized annual training courses since 1992 for teachers and instructors. The subjects covered in these professional development sessions include language instruction, grammar, and teaching methods.

After completing secondary school, students who have studied the full Assyrian-language curriculum for all subjects are eligible to enroll in one of the universities offering Assyrian programs if they wish to continue their studies in Assyrian. They may also apply to any other college -- such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Arts, or others -- should they choose to pursue different fields.

Hundreds of students have graduated from Assyrian-language schools, including more than 20 doctors, numerous pharmacists, engineers, teachers, and professionals across various disciplines. Among them are distinguished graduates -- for example, four students earned master's degrees in English, while several others obtained PhDs in Pharmacy and Chemistry, in addition to dozens of engineers specializing in different fields.

In certain areas of Nohadra (Duhok), especially the al-Askari (Military) and al-Shurta (Police) neighborhoods, there are kindergartens where children learn Assyrian. This early exposure greatly facilitates learning when they enter primary school, as they already possess basic knowledge of the language.However, in other regions, no Assyrian-language kindergartens are available. Some churches also take the initiative to teach Assyrian to young children as part of their community programs.

4 – Benefits of Assyrian-language Schools

1. Strengthening and bringing together the cultural identity of the community;
2. Preserving one shared written language instead of multiple dialects;
3. Promoting interaction and mutual understanding among communities in different regions;
4. Encouraging communication and friendship among young men and women.

5 – At universities

Departments of Assyrian Language have been established at several Iraqi universities -- including the Universities of Baghdad, Arba'ilo (Erbil), Nohadra (Dohuk), and Nineveh -- within their Colleges of Languages. These departments admit high school graduates, and the program lasts four years, granting students a Bachelor's degree in Assyrian Language upon completion.The four-year curriculum includes the following core subjects: Assyrian Grammar, Assyrian Reading and Literature, Translation, Composition and Writing, and Hebrew. Students in the third and fourth years study other Semitic and related languages, including Hebrew, Old Aramaic, Akkadian, Mandaic, and Arabic. The College of Languages also offers, in addition to the bachelor's degree, a Master's program in Semitic Languages.

In the past, admission was limited to speakers of Sureth (Christian Assyrian), but due to the limited number of applicants from the Assyrian community, enrollment was later opened to all students according to general admission criteria and required grades.

All faculty members in the Assyrian Department at the University of Baghdad are Arab Muslims, and there was only one Assyrian-speaking teacher, who has recently retired. To date, four graduates from the Assyrian Department at the University of Baghdad have obtained a Master's degree in Assyrian Language.

In the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, the College of Education-Department of Assyrian Language Teaching was established in 2017.There has been steady enrollment from graduates of Assyrian-language secondary schools, with a minimum admission grade of 65%.Students study the following subjects:Assyrian Grammar, Assyrian Literature, and Phonetics. Additional minor subjects: Kurdish, Old Aramaic, English, and Mandaic.

The number of students ranges between 12 and 20 per year.Faculty members include both Assyrian and non-Assyrian instructors, and the student body is mixed as well.

There is also an ongoing project to establish a Assyrian Academy in Erbil to further develop research, teacher training, and cultural preservation initiatives.

6 – Why Should I Learn Assyrian as a Assyrian Person?

1. Because it is my mother tongue -- every people has its own language;
2. To communicate with my family and relatives all over the world;
3. To understand our history and civilization, especially those recorded in Assyrian;
4. To explore Assyrian culture and literature throughout history, particularly texts written in Assyrian;
5. Because it is an ancient and noble language, one of the oldest in human history -- and with pride, it is the language of our Lord Jesus Christ, glory be to Him.

7 – How to Preserve the Assyrian Language

1. Efforts of individuals and Assyrian institutions;
2. Starting with oneself;
3. Attempting to influence to raise governmental interest through our parties and institutions;
4. Following an enjoyable and engaging teaching method and curriculum;
5. The role of institutions in supporting the Assyrian language;
6. The church's role is very important as it trains deacons and teachers in education and dissemination;
7. Possibility of integrating the Assyrian language into daily life in other communities;
8. There are challenges and difficulties, but they are not impossible to overcome, e.g. through educational tools, translation, and cartoons;
9. Organizing conferences and seminars on Assyrian literature, culture, and heritage, and issuing final statements confirming governmental and institutional care and attention.

8 – Final Recommendations for Curriculum Development and Teaching Enhancement

1. Update curricula to models aligned with modern pedagogy (activity-based learning, communicative tasks, use of multimedia);
2. Teacher training programs focusing on language teaching methods, designing interactive activities, and competency-based assessment instead of rote memorization;
3. Develop digital resources -- apps, e-books, and educational videos -- to engage students and link the language to current contexts;
4. Adopt a clear linguistic standard that considers dialectal differences and provides some level of unification (e.g., a basic, comprehensible curriculum with dialectal supplements);
5. Institutional partnerships: Encourage collaboration between the Regional Ministry of Education, universities, churches, and civil organizations to fund and pilot curricula and training programs;
6. Transform Assyrian schools into vibrant spaces for learning a living language, reinforcing heritage and identity in the era of globalization.