Homs, Sept. 29 (SANA) Thirty-five damaged schools in Syria’s central Homs province have been brought back into service under a Saudi-funded rehabilitation project, providing classroom space for about 18,000 students, local education officials said Monday.
Two of the schools — Omar al-Mukhtar School in al-Qusayr and Suleiman al-Rajab School in al-Ghanto — formally reopened Monday after repairs funded by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief).
Malak al-Sibai, Homs’ director of education, told SANA that all 35 schools had previously been out of service. Their reopening is expected to ease pressure on classrooms, particularly in communities seeing families return, she said.
The project is part of a wider KSrelief program to rehabilitate 60 schools across Syria, benefiting more than 50,000 students, according to Nayef al-Shammari, the organization’s director in Syria.
Syria’s education system is still recovering from years of war that left thousands of schools damaged or out of service. The Education Ministry has said about 40% of schools nationwide require rebuilding or rehabilitation, while the return of displaced families is adding pressure on classrooms as student enrollment rises.
At Suleiman al-Rajab School in al-Ghanto, principal Hayyan Assaf said damage from airstrikes by the former regime had forced the school to close and students to attend classes elsewhere.
Repairs included restoring doors, windows, classrooms, the schoolyard and restrooms, as well as painting and tiling work. The school now serves about 950 students in two shifts, Assaf said.
Homs education authorities have separately completed maintenance work at 70 schools that remained operational in the city and surrounding countryside, part of efforts to expand classroom capacity and improve learning conditions.
KSrelief, established in Saudi Arabia in 2015, provides humanitarian assistance in sectors including education, health, food security and shelter.
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