In Syria’s ancient Aleppo, school is a basement under fire

Back to school for children in the rebel-held part of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo can mean having to cower in classes underground, sheltering from relentless regime air raids. The children have few notebooks and pens and pencils among them, but they still enthusiastically join in a singalong and pay attention as teacher Abdullah writes on the whiteboard. In between classes, the children flood up the stairs for a brief break in the open air, despite the dangers posed by regime air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city. Syrian government planes and helicopters frequently overfly the area, firing rockets and dropping explosive-packed barrel bombs that kill and wound indiscriminately.

We come up to play a bit and have some fun because we’ve been underground for a long time.

Jafar, elementary school student

Aleppo has been among the areas worst ravaged by the fighting, and in particular by the regime’s aerial campaign which has destroyed much of the country’s one-time economic hub. Schooling is now sporadic and haphazard, with little in the way of a formal curriculum and children of different ages crammed together in the same lessons.

Middle East Syria