DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2020) Syria hopes to ramp up education cooperation with Russia, as it needs high-qualified specialists for rebuilding efforts, Education Minister Darem Tabbaa said on Thursday.
"We do not want our cooperation to remain only at the level of teaching the Russian language. We would like to expand our joint efforts," Tabbaa said at a meeting with Russian First Deputy Education Minister Dmitry Glushko in Damascus.
The Arab republic, he continued, is actively engaged in rebuilding efforts and needs well-trained specialists. In addition, the country is interested in expanding training opportunities of Syrian athletes.
During the meeting, Tabbaa also showed Glushko Russian language school textbooks that are being published in Syria.
The meeting was held as part of a session of the working group for science and education of the Russian-Syrian Permanent Committee for Economic, Commercial, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation. The talks took place in the Syrian capital in parallel with the two-day Damascus international conference on the repatriation of refugees.
Apart from officials from the Russian and Syrian education ministries, the working group's session was attended by representatives of the Russian humanitarian cooperation agency and several leading Moscow universities.
"The meeting has discussed axes of cooperation between the Syrian and Russian sides in several areas, with one of the most important being the sector of education to develop curricula, methods, cultural and scientific exchange between the two countries in a practical manner for the benefit of Syria at a re-launching stage of the Syrian society," economics professor at Damascus University Dr. Ziad Arbash told reporters.
The sides also "discussed several strategic, practical and operational aspects to develop scientific and cultural cooperation between Russia and Syria in various fields, including universities, academies, research centers and Primary education, to benefit from the Russian experience," the professor added.
