Thousands of Syrian children attend school in Turkey every day alongside Turkish students, and communicate in a language that is different from their mother tongue. This situation has affected a large number of Syrian students, especially the young ones, who gradually have started losing the ability to use the Arabic language.

The Turkish government has been implementing an integration policy for Syrian refugees for nearly two years now, which has largely contributed to the decline of the Arabic language among Syrian children, especially since licensed Arab schools in Turkey are costly for most parents, forcing them to enroll their children in free Turkish public schools.

On Oct. 3, 2016, the Turkish Ministry of Education issued a decision stipulating the integration of Syrian children subject to the Temporary Protection Law into Turkish schools, forcing students who were studying the curricula of the Syrian opposition’s Interim Government to transfer to Turkish public schools.

Thus, the new Syrian generation in Turkey is becoming fully proficient in the Turkish language, neglecting at the same time its mother tongue. While most Syrian children are able to speak the Syrian dialect, they lack the skills to read and write in literary Arabic.