Syrian government limits Kurdish language instruction in schools

The Syrian government issued Decree No. 13 in January 2026 to recognize Kurdish as a national language and mandate its teaching in areas with large Kurdish populations.

Under the Baath Party government, the Syrian state banned Kurdish language education and restricted cultural materials based on a policy of Arab nationalism. This changed during the Syrian war starting in 2011.

As Kurdish self-rule began in the north and northeast of Syria, the local administration established schools and cultural institutions where Kurdish became a primary medium of instruction alongside Arabic and Syriac. The Syrian Ministry of Education recently developed regulations to implement the new national language decree in public and private schools. However, Kurdish officials, teachers, and students criticize the government for limiting Kurdish language instruction to only three sessions per week.

Critics argue these restrictions threaten the cultural identity and linguistic heritage of the Syrian Kurdish community. The dispute over language education has become a central point of friction regarding the integration of Kurdish regions into the central government structure in Damascus. Kurdish activists view the expansion of their mother tongue in schools as a matter of equal citizenship rights rather than just a cultural preference.