Syria

Libraries are educational centers supervised by the Ministry of Culture. There are over 300 libraries in Syria. The major public libraries are the National Assad Library in Damascus and the university libraries in Damascus and Aleppo. The first academic library was the Medical College Library in Damascus. In addition to providing library services, Syrian libraries organize and present a range of cultural activities such as lectures, workshops, training course, art exhibitions, and showing of educational movies. Since 1974 a section of the Ministry of Education has supervised school library organization and provided for the training of librarians.

American Middle East Educational & Training Services, Inc. (AMIDEAST), a private nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, was founded in 1951 to promote cooperation and understanding between Americans and people of the Middle East and North Africa through education, information, and development assistance programs. The site in Syria opened in 1955, closed in 1967, and reopened in 1978. AMIDEAST Syria administers the Fulbright Program for students from the Middle East and North Africa, distributes basic advising materials and information on education in the United States, administers standardized tests required by universities in the United States, and coordinates study tours and programs in Syria for groups of American undergraduate students. Since 1996, AMIDEAST has offered both English and Arabic language courses for adults and for children. The American Language Center (ALC) was established in 1986 by the United States Information Service to teach the English language to Syrians and to expose students to American life and culture. The center had 45 native-English instructors in 2000 and up to 2,000 students each term.

Distance education is limited in Syria. Until the late 1990s, the Ministry of Education focused only on traditional forms of instruction. Educational television and programming are the responsibility of the Ministry of Education's Directorate of Teaching Technologies Center, which develops and produces educational resources. The televised programs have primarily been used to provide general information or series of programs designed to introduce and teach computer applications.

The Syrian Computer Society was founded in 1989 as a non-profit organization to promote and to contribute to the diffusion of information technology in Syria. The organization provides different levels of training programs that are open to the public; offers training programs for profession; and organizes workshops, seminars, and conferences. The Syrian Computer Society has worked closely with the Ministry of Education to form the Syrian National Policy for Information Technology in Education. This policy provides a timeline for training teachers, providing computers and other equipment to schools, and adding computer science and information technology courses in all levels of education. Syria's Internet infrastructure should be completed by mid-2001. At that time Internet providers will be licensed, and by 2001 approximately 50,000 people should be able to access the Internet. The plan calls for each school to have a Web site and to be connected to an approved Internet provider. In addition, free computer courses are available to all citizens at a number of accessible training centers. Future policies will address the development of online courses and other forms of nontraditional education.