AMUDA Syria — “The governorate of Hasakeh is a swamp, I need to get out of here,” said red-bearded Abu Wa’el, the commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Dir’ al-Muslimin (Armor of Muslims) brigade in Ras al-Ain. FSA fighters crave fighting with the regime, but they remain stuck in the barracks most of the time because the front line is elsewhere. The mujahedeen are not the only ones burdened by inertia in one of the regions largely spared from government shelling, as thousands of university students waste at least one year without attending classes.

Even if their situation were not comparable to their compatriots under the bombs in Aleppo or Homs, where thousands of schools have been destroyed or converted into shelters for refugees, the students in Hasakeh are often left with the only option of migration.

According to a report published by the Syrian Center for Policy Research in January 2013, the annual budget spent on education shrank from 34.5 billion Syrian pounds ($330 million) in 2010 to 19.5 ($185 million) in 2012. In addition to the budget cuts, there are countless other valid reasons for students to leave their studies, including psychological trauma. 

“This is not a suitable environment to study. One of my cousins was fatally wounded while serving in the army in Idlib, and another one lost his kidneys at the hands of a sniper in Bukamal [Deir Ezzor],” said Majid Shaykh Abdullah, 20, who enrolled to study law at the private Open University of Hasakeh in 2012.