Key facts
- Hundreds of students in Syria's Sweida province are unable to attend school and university due to a rift between the post-Assad government and local Druze leaders.
- Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, a Druze cleric, declared his community 'part and parcel of the state of Israel'.
- Syrian authorities cancelled exams in Sweida last year following sectarian violence.
- This year, student exams were again disrupted, with Damascus and Druze factions blaming each other.
- Only 150 out of 13,700 school students in Sweida took exams needed for high school or university entry this year.
Young people in Syria's Sweida province are facing significant disruptions to their education due to a widening rift between the post-Assad Islamist government and the Israel-aligned Druze leaders controlling the region. This situation reflects the deep trauma and persistent instability within the province.
Maram Abu Hamra, a 20-year-old student who aspired to study architecture in Aleppo, has been back in Sweida for over a year, too afraid to return to government-controlled areas. She expressed the widespread despair among students, stating, "Every student had a dream of being an engineer, a doctor, an artist -- or anything that they can achieve. But sadness, fear and resentment took control instead."
Sweida, home to approximately 700,000 Druze, is located in the southwest of Syria, bordering Jordan. Most of the province is currently under the control of forces loyal to Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, a Druze cleric. In August, Hajari declared his community to be 'part and parcel of the state of Israel,' a statement made amid calls from Israeli Druze for assistance to their Syrian counterparts, with Israeli leaders citing the protection of Syrian Druze as a justification for repeated strikes in Syria.
Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who seeks to re-establish the country's relations with the West after overthrowing Bashar al-Assad in 2024, has pledged to unify Syrian territory under a single leadership. However, many Druze remain distrustful of his assurances regarding their rights, citing his past connections with al-Qaeda and the mass killings of the previous year. Fahed Abu Saad, whose son and daughter missed their final exams this year, stated, "What I want to say is that our fear is justified, because there are past incidents that were not that long ago, that were barely a year ago."
Syrian authorities initially cancelled high school and university entry exams in Sweida last year following the killings. Subsequently, Syrian government troops withdrew from most of the province, and Hajari prevented their return, strengthening his opposition to integration and establishing an armed group known as the National Guard. Hajari's territories are now the sole areas outside government control, following a government offensive that led to the integration of Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria earlier this year.
Many Druze students who were studying elsewhere in Syria returned to Sweida in 2025. However, this year's exams were again disrupted, with both the government and Druze factions exchanging blame. In the spring, Damascus offered to send supervisors into Sweida to oversee the exams, but some Druze factions perceived this as an attempt to redeploy government forces. Qutaiba Azzam, the government's media relations director for Sweida province, claimed that local factions threatened the proctors, a claim that Reuters could not independently verify.
In August, Damascus proposed that students from Hajari-held areas could take their exams in a northern part of Sweida province controlled by the government. This proposal caused apprehension among students and their parents. Abu Saad commented on the disparity, saying, "It is not allowed for us to be scared that our children go to the northern countryside, but it is allowed for the ministry of education to be scared for its envoys to come here." Some Druze, still affected by the 2025 killings, fear that Hajari's forces might label students as traitors for traveling into government-controlled territory for exams. Tarek Adwan, a government-appointed provincial official, told Reuters that armed factions in Sweida city had attacked buses designated for transporting students to their exams, a claim Reuters could not independently verify. Hajari's office and Syria's education ministry declined to comment.
According to government figures shared via Syria's state news agency, only 150 out of 13,700 school students in Sweida were able to take exams this year that are necessary for progression into high school or university. The remaining students, along with university students like Abu Hamra, remain in a state of uncertainty, mirroring the situation of Sweida province as a whole. The region has historically maintained a degree of autonomy, even during the nearly 14-year civil war. A seven-step roadmap agreed upon last year by the Syrian government, Jordan, and the United States to resolve the Sweida dispute has reportedly made "no progress," according to the United Nations in June.