Remedial Program for Crisis Affected Newly

Enrolled

Students of the English Department at Damascus

University: A Case Study.

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 1. Chapter One: Introduction.

I. General Background

II. Statement of the Problem

III. Purpose of the Study and Research Objectives

IV. Research Question

V. Background: the current Syrian Context

VI. Current Admission Mechanics: An Overview

VII. Program Implementation

VIII. Remedial Program

IX. Intention of the Remediation Policy

X. Procedures

XI. Scope

XII. Limitations

XIII. Delimitations

XIV. Definition of Key Terms

XV. Chapter One Summary

2. Chapter Two: Review of Literature.

I. Introduction

II. Historical Background of Remedial Education

III. Chapter Two Summary

3. Chapter Three: Methodology.

I. Introduction

II. Research Questions

III. Research Design

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 IV. Participants

V. Background and Culture

VI. Instruments

VII. Data Collection

VIII. Data Management

IX. Data Analysis

X. Chapter Three Summary

4. Chapter Four: Data Collection and Analysis.

I. Introduction

II. Participants

III. Participants’ Description

IV. Theme Development

V. Research Questions

5. Chapter Five: Findings.

I. Introduction

II. Summary of the Study

III. Summary of the Findings

IV. Discussion

V. Implications

6. Chapter Six: Recommendations for Future Research.

7. Chapter Seven: Conclusion.

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 Chapter One

Introduction
The Syrian crisis of March 2011 resulted in terrible consequences. This conflict
has raged for the last 8 years. As things go from bad to worse, with no end in
sight, eleven million people have been killed or displaced since then. The war has
decimated not just peoples’ lives but vital services, such as education, that will be
needed if the country is ever to find its way out of the current chaos. Universities
in particular have felt the full force of the crisis with faculties bombed on a
regular basis, students and teachers fleeing their cities and leaving their lives
behind.

As the war in Syria is coming to an end, the institutional framework within which
higher education takes place has been dramatically suffering in the past eight
years and, in some parts of the country, has disappeared entirely. These past years
have created conditions that render teaching at Syria’s state and private
universities not only difficult, but dangerous. The collapsing nature of higher
education inside Syria is a generally unacknowledged and unmet component of
the larger civilian Syrian humanitarian disaster. This triggered a serious problem
related to preparing students to enter university.

This lost generation of students are the human capitals that will be critical to the
rebuilding of Syrian society after the crisis has ended, and they will have an even
more crucial role to play as a modern force in the resurrection of the state.

Up until the outbreak of war in 2011, Syria had witnessed a significant pace of
progress in various aspects of life including Education. Achievements in

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education were manifested in high primary education enrolment and a secondary
school completion rate. Universities expanded as more faculties were established
in different areas of the country especially in the eastern region. This widespread
of faculties in the country provided opportunities for students to pursue their
academic studies in their own towns and cities. Enrollment rate in the faculties of
Der Ezzor and then the University of Al Furat –Faculties of Al-Raqqa and Al-
Hasaka- exceeded 45.000 by the year 2010.Unfortunately, war has undone years
of progress in different fields; as education and higher education have suffered
catastrophic consequences. As a result of the continuous cruel and uncivilized
terrorist attacks, dropouts’ rates of students exceeded the limits as the established
faculties were destroyed which deprived them from their right to pursue their
education.

As previously mentioned, the economic and social collapse brought on by years of

war has undone years of educational achievement in Syria, with over 2 million
Syrian children out of school (inside and outside Syria), still others at risk of
dropping out, and one fifth of all Syrian teaching staff and school counsellors lost.
In 2012, only 57 percent of students continued on to secondary school, down
from 98 percent the previous year. Further, one out of every five schools in Syria
has been damaged, destroyed, or repurposed, often as army barracks. The
devastation caused to the education system by the crisis will have an effect on
Syria’s economy and prosperity as a whole.

Syrians have suffered catastrophic consequences because of the unlawful

bloodiest war which received the support of the west and some regional countries
as they financed, supported and armed outlaws against the state.

The ultimate aim of this terrible war was to demolish and destroy Syrians’ rich
resources and heritage.

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Recently, Syrian people stood the challenge and fought back to make their way
through. A wind of change is bringing a new bright day for Syria. Failure to
address the impact of war upon education and higher education will have wider
consequences.

While pre-university level cannot be ignored, the focus of this research is on

higher education issues especially the case of students enrolling in the English
department in Damascus University fleeing from besieged areas by terrorists.
Generally, some of these students don’t have the necessary aptitude level to meet
the academic demands of the department. The study attempts to investigate and
offer solutions and recommendations to solve the problems of those students.
Ignoring their education needs is not an option to be afforded.

Due to the crisis, some students fleeing from besieged areas by terrorists suffered
interruptions in their learning process and developed gaps in their aptitude due
to missing classes, closure of some schools and faculties and even losing some of
their best teachers. A “Fact Sheet” report by UNICEF showed that: “inside Syria, the
country has lost around 20% of teaching staff and school counsellors”.

One of the most difficult things is to make people understand that higher
education in [wartime] is not a luxury but one of the most strategic investments.

The dilemma in fact is that not enough attention is paying paid by the university
to deal with the situation of those students who are fleeing from besieged areas by
terrorists and coming to enroll in the university.

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 Statement of the Problem
Due to war, a lot of educational institutions have been destroyed and
consequently, students were deprived of their right to receive good quality
education. Some students coming from besieged areas to enroll in the English
department face major difficulties throughout their studies. Fewer students
coming from these affected areas meet the academic requirements of the English
department.

These humanitarian consequences left students with no equal education

opportunities. Most students who have been blessed in living in peaceful areas,
run by the government, received better education and thus acquired better
English language competence which enabled them to meet the Academic
requirements of the English department. Students living in besieged areas by the
terrorists were deprived of these same opportunities and therefore, their English
language competence and performance is not up to the level required by the
department. Though these students are admitted in the English department, they
face major Academic problems related to coping with their peers due to their
linguistic inadequacy. The arising problem is not solely academic, but extends to
psychological issues that hinders their learning progress.

Adding to this, the main criteria of admission are based only on scores of English
language in the Baccalaureate program curriculum. Due to the missing of an
entrance exam that assesses students’ levels, a kind of mismatching between
aptitudes of students and academic requirements of the department occurs.

This study was conducted to investigate the problem of students who are fleeing

from besieged areas by terrorists, suffered interruptions in their learning process

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and developed gaps in their aptitude due to missing classes, closure of some

schools and faculties and even losing some of their teachers.

This problem showed up during the outbreak of war in Syria in 2011.

Unfortunately, dropouts’ rates of students exceeded the limits as the established

faculties were destroyed, as a result of the cruel war, which deprived students

from their right to pursue their education.

Purpose of the Study and Research Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the case of students enrolling in the
English department in Damascus University fleeing from besieged areas by
terrorists. Generally, some of these students don’t have the necessary aptitude
level to meet the academic demands of the department. The study attempts to
investigate and offer solutions and recommendations to solve the problems of
those students. Ignoring their education needs is not an option to be afforded.

The research objectives will help avoid a similar failure to that experienced
previously in post-conflict areas like Iraq and Afghanistan, where the skills and
capacity gap have been highly acknowledged.

The study aims to:

1. Identify the requirements of success for students entering the English

department at Damascus University and analyze academic and psychological
learning obstacles which face the newly enrolled university students in the
English department.

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 2. Identify the linguistic problems which some students fleeing from besieged
areas face and may cause serious linguistic problems due to Study interruptions,
missing a lot of classes and even losing some of their best teachers

3. Analyze the linguistic needs of students who lack the right linguistic
aptitude necessary to meet the demands of the English department.

4. Recommend “Reform Plans” in relation to admission procedures to improve

admission mechanism to the English department prior to being accepted.

5. Modify the study plan of the first year in English literature and recommend
a change to the design of the English curriculum.

6. Design and construct a model to overcome academic problems of students

related to coping with the academic needs of the English department.

Research Questions:
• What are the common linguistic gaps of students who are fleeing from besieged
areas to peaceful ones?

• Will bridging these aptitude gaps contribute in students’ success?

• How could the proposed model respond to the needs of those students?

• Why are the current study plans within the English Department in Damascus
University lacking in relation to overcoming these linguistic problems?

• To what extent the Syrian crisis affected the English Department of Damascus
University? And what are the strategies that should be adapted to encounter its
damage?

• Who? Where? When? And how would the proposed model be implemented to
reach its goals?

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 Background: the Current Syrian context

UNICEF reported on the Syrian crisis concluding that “In Syria, the crisis has
pushed the capacity of basic social services to the breaking point, with a
devastating impact on 4.5 million children. A total of 2 million children are out of
school and one in five schools has been destroyed, damaged, or used for other
purposes, including occupation by armed groups. The economic and social
collapse in Syria has reversed decades of educational achievement. Over 20% of
schools are damaged, destroyed, adapted as shelters or occupied by armed forces.
Risks of attack, looting, abduction and military use of schools are high.

The research objectives will help avoid a similar failure to that experienced
previously in post-conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, where the skills and
capacity gap have been highly acknowledged.

The research focus is primarily on higher Education as being of a major

importance for the resurrection of Syrian human capitals for future investments
that serve the country good.

Current Admission Mechanics: An Overview

Higher education is provided by Universities, Higher Institutes, and intermediate
institutions of Professional and Technical training under the responsibility of the
Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). Except the four private universities just
opened, all higher education institutions are state controlled and state financed.
The main body responsible for overall policy concerning Teaching and Scientific
Research is the Council for Higher Education, which consists of representatives of
the universities, teachers and students, and of the Ministries of Education, Health,

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Planning and Higher Education. The language of education is Arabic. Some
graduate-level programs are provided in English or French as well as Arabic.

Policies of Admission to the English Department follows a criterion which is

based on the score of Baccalaureate and the scores of the English language.

Students enter Damascus University- English department must have exactly a

29-30 in English (Scientific Baccalaureate) and 39-40 in English (Literary
Baccalaureate) and gain a specific total score in the Baccalaureate for the
admission to the Department of English. All these will be subjected to
computerized screening (Mufadala) before being finally admitted to the
department. Students are not subjected to any prior assessment of their linguistic
competence and aptitude before being finally accepted in the department.

Program Implementation
Meanwhile, student demand for remediation has increased in recent decades.
Nationally, it is estimated that only one-third of students leave high school at least
minimally prepared for college (Greene & Foster, 2003).

Such programs are being implemented in other countries. Between 2010-11 and
2011-12, Colorado Department of Higher Education found that concurrent
enrollment in remedial courses grew by 39 percent, with the largest such
enrollments at Community College of Denver and Community College of Aurora.

Remediation, if found suitable to apply, has long historical roots. A Yale Report in
1828 called for an end to the admission of under-prepared students, while a
speech in 1869 from an incoming Harvard President discussed the need for
colleges to compensate for poor early preparation (Spann, 2000). The first known
remedial education program involved coursework in reading, writing and
arithmetic and began in 1849 at the University of Wisconsin (Phipps, 1998). In

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the 1980s, legislatively mandated testing further increased the remedial courses
offered. At the beginning of the 20th century, over half of the students who
enrolled in Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia were placed into remedial
courses.

Remedial Program
The term remedial has medical connotations and implies providing a cure for an
educational illness. Semantically, it suggests an activity which rectifies a
deficiency or corrects some disability or disease (Conroy, 1993). It is as though
the remedial practitioner is called in only after failure or breakdown in learning
has occurred and thus operates within narrow parameters of the original
problem.

The National Association for Remedial Education (1977) in its guidelines

produced a broad based definition which appealed to most interested parties. In a
policy document entitled Guidelines No. 1 (1977), the following definition of
remedial education appeared:

"Remedial education is a part of education which is concerned with the

prevention, investigation and treatment of learning difficulties from whatever
source they may emanate and which hinder the normal development of the
student". Remedial instruction consists of remedial activities taking place along
with the regular instruction or outside the regular class instruction and usually
conducted by a special teacher. The type of remedial treatment given to the
students depends on the character of the diagnosis made.

Intention of the Remediation Policy

The goal of remediation is to identify, based on course instructional objectives

and evidenced by poor performance on examination(s), areas of weaknesses of

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material, and, once identified, to assist the student in overcoming those
weaknesses and develop mastery of the material. Within courses that do not
utilize Exams, course directors may allow remediation of other assessment
tools/methods at their discretion.

It is suggested that all assessments are designed to allow the student to

demonstrate competency in areas where s/he previously failed to meet required
levels of knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes.

The debate on what constitutes an acceptable amount of remediation has

emerged at different times and in varied forms, and continues to be a subject of
major disagreement to this day. Later on, Remedial programs were initiated in
different countries all over the world, including Canada, Kenya, Ghana and some
Indian cities as an attempt to raise students’ proficiency levels.

Scope
This study was conducted within the city of Damascus in the Syrian Arab
Republic, and more specifically, it examined students coming from besieged
areas, taking Der Ezzor as an example, and enrolling within the English
department at Damascus University during conflict years.

It examined factors as perceived by faculty members and program administrators

that contributed to student success or failure during the past eight years of
conflict.

Therefore, it could be argued that the results cannot be generalized to all

universities within Syria unless it would be modified accordingly.

Limitations

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The study is limited to specific group of people; Syrian students who have
finished their Baccalaureate and witnessed terrible times in the Besieged areas by
the terrorists. It may not be applicable to other groups in principle unless the
study is modified accordingly or those other group fall in the same category.

The program of Remedy may differ practically according to the needs of students
or the situation regarding the hours of implementation and the conditions of the
program.

All students who are enrolled in Damascus University and who haven’t lived back
there in those inflected areas are to be excluded of the study; they may not have
gone through the same experience other students had.

Limitations of case studies:

A case study involves the behavior of one person, group or organization. The
behavior of this one unit of analysis may or may not reflect the behavior of
similar entities. Case studies may be suggestive of what may be found in similar
organizations, nut additional research would be needed to verify whether
findings from one study would generalize elsewhere.

Delimitations
The purpose of this study was to examine the case of students enrolling in the
English department in Damascus University fleeing from besieged areas by
terrorists. Generally, some of these students don’t have the necessary aptitude
level to meet the academic demands of the department. The study attempts to
investigate and offer solutions and recommendations to solve the problems of
those students. Ignoring their education needs is not an option to be afforded.

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The research objectives will help avoid a similar failure to that experienced
previously in post-conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan, where the skills and
capacity gap have been highly acknowledged.

This study is conducted only to offer recommendations and further suggestion to

face the current problem. It is not set to make radical changes or put certain
stakeholders accountable of the case under study. The study is not to set specific
programs or delete others, its purpose is to pave the way to other coming
researches and put the study in its right place. Due to a variety of reasons, the
study couldn’t cover everything needed to be implemented, leaving that to the yet
to come research students.

Definition of Key Terms

There were fundamental terms that required definition in order to understand
their relation for the purposes of the study. They were as follows:

Remedial Education Program / Learning Support / Developmental Education:

Remedial Education in postsecondary settings, also known as developmental
education, learning support, or basic skills, is a series of courses for college-
admitted students who, upon admittance and taking required placement
examinations, were found not to have the knowledge and skills necessary for
success in college-level courses. (cited in Simonez, T, J- 2016).

Faculty Member Participants: For the purposes of this study, faculty member
participants referred to English instructors at Damascus University and the
higher language institution (HLI) in the education program.

Senior / Top-Level Administrators: For the purposes of this study, top-level

administrators referred to institutional administrators such as the dean, the
research supervisor, and the English department chairwomen of academic affairs.

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These administrators set rules and regulations that governed Damascus
University.

Student Success: -For the purposes of this study, student success was defined as
the completion of all required education coursework.

Chapter One Summary

Chapter one provided an introduction and definition to major aspects of the
study. This chapter offered differing opinions regarding remedial education
programs applicability within the current Syrian context. Also, Chapter One
included the problem statement, research questions, significance of the study,
definitions of key terms, and the limitations and delimitations, associated with this
study. Chapter Two, will depict a comprehensive descriptive and historical
literature analysis of remedial education and similar case studies that set off
remedial program initiatives. Chapter Three will provide precise details
regarding the research process. The research questions and purpose of the study
will be discussed initially, followed by a discussion of the qualitative research
design, case study approach, site selection, participants, role of the researcher as
faculty and instrument, and examination of the researcher’s lens. In Chapter four,
the researcher will offer a detailed analysis of instrumentation, discussion of data
collection and analysis processes, and a comprehensive discussion about levels of
trustworthiness, and ethical considerations. Chapter five will contain the
summary of the study, the summary findings and discussion that emerged from
the study. Chapter six will offer recommendations for further study and
conclusions drawn from the study will be in chapter seven.

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