Lawless Groups Block Al-Suwayda Students From Damascus Exam Centers, Syrian Authorities Say

Syrian authorities said lawless groups in al-Suwayda prevented students from reaching exam centers in Damascus and Rif Dimashq after the Ministry of Education relocated the Basic Education and General Secondary certificates for the 2026 session to those areas.

“The Syrian authorities confirmed that outlawed groups continue to prevent and obstruct school students in Sweida province in the south from reaching examination centers in Damascus and Rif Damascus”

Al-Jazeera Net

SANA reported that Suleiman Abdul-Baqi, director of internal security in al-Suwayda, said outlaw groups prevented students from reaching their exam centers in Damascus, and threatened some of them and assaulted them despite state efforts to secure transport.

Al-Jazeera Net

Abdul-Baqi said the Internal Security Command prepared about a month and a half ago, in coordination with the Ministry of Education and the al-Suwayda Governorate, a plan to secure students heading to exam centers in Jaramanah, Al-Ashrafiya, and Sahnaya, with more than 1,000 Internal Security forces deployed on the Damascus-Suwayda road.

SANA also said the educational process was affected by assaults on staff of the Directorate of Education, including shooting at workers and kidnapping and threatening the Director of Education, and that these conditions do not provide a safe environment for the educational process.

The Anadolu Ajansı report said the Syrian authorities announced on Sunday evening that lawless groups in al-Suwayda Province were preventing students from heading to Damascus and Rif Dimashq to take the exams scheduled for next week.

Multiple reports tied the exam disruption to road closures and National Guard-linked checkpoints, with Ta’akkad and other sources describing students being blocked from leaving al-Suwayda toward Damascus.

A Ta’akkad correspondent said the Sha’ba and Umm al-Zaytun checkpoints belonging to the National Guard in al-Suwayda prevented a number of students from leaving the governorate toward Damascus to take the exams, and added that some who managed to cross were forced to pay money or benefited from kinship ties with personnel at the checkpoints.

Anadolu Ajansı

In a separate account, Al-Jazeera Net reported that Qutaiba Ezzam, Director of Public Relations at the Sweida Media Directorate, said elements of the so-called National Guard affiliated with the Druze leader Hukmat al-Hajari established checkpoints in the city of Shaba and in Umm al-Zaytun and prevented students from leaving toward the exam centers.

Al-Jazeera Net also said that, based on parents' testimonies, some students paid bribes to be allowed through while others managed to leave thanks to kinship ties with people at the checkpoints.

SANA said the blocking extended to educational staff, with checkpoints stopping teachers officially assigned to supervise the exams and preventing them from continuing on their way.

While the reports described obstruction and intimidation around the Damascus-Suwayda corridor, SANA said the Syrian government took measures to enable students in al-Suwayda to take the general certificate examinations, including designating alternative exam centers and ensuring transport under its direct supervision.

“Syrian authorities said that lawless groups in the southern province of al-Suwayda are preventing students from traveling to Damascus and Rural Damascus to take the official exams scheduled for next week”

Yeni Shafak

SANA reported that Abdul-Baqi said the state is making efforts to restore security and stability to the governorate, to hold violators accountable, compensate the affected, and uphold the rule of law, and that there have been no assaults recorded in areas where security forces are deployed unless provoked.

SANA also said that this morning the exams for the Basic Education and the Sharia Preparatory certificates for the 2026 session began across the various Syrian governorates, with 450,884 male and female students taking the Basic Education certificate and 13,141 students taking the Sharia Preparatory certificate, distributed across 2,053 examination centers.

Al-Jazeera Net added that the Minister of Education Mohammed Abdul Rahman Turku, accompanied by his aide Yousef Anan, visited a number of exam centers in Zamalka, Saqba and Hammuriyeh in Rif Damascus to inspect the progress on day one.

Anadolu Ajansı said the Basic Education Certificate (the ninth grade) exams are scheduled to begin on June 4 and run until June 24, followed by the General Secondary Certificate (the Baccalaureate) exams in all branches on June 6, with completion scheduled between June 25 and July 2.