A/HRC/43/CRP.6 46. Children faced numerous difficulties to resume their studies in public schools. Reports indicate that Government authorities have accepted the attendance of younger children, however, they are allegedly refusing to acknowledge school certificates provided by armed groups to students in grade nine and above. This is forcing thousands of students to repeat classes and retake exams in order to be enrolled in public schools. Combined with large-scale conscription campaigns and the general collapse of the education system, this enables swift compulsory recruitment of young men, many of whom are illiterate and with meagre prospects for their future, into Government ranks. Non-state armed groups and terrorist organizations 47. Armed groups and terrorist organizations struck schools indiscriminately and often used them for military purposes, including as depots, barracks, or launching sites, further endangering children’s lives by changing the institutions’ protected statuses, and hindering children’s access to education. Indiscriminate mortar and artillery fire caused scores of child casualties in the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, as well as in Idlib governorate. Fearing further attacks, some schools, such as Abdulrahman Al-Khazen School in Al-Fahamy (Damascus), moved classes into basements after Jaish Al-Islam launched mortar shells on the capital in February 2015. 48. Over the years, different armed groups imposed competing curricula in schools in areas under their control. Movement restrictions and widespread fear of arrests at Government checkpoints compelled many parents to confine children to their homes or enrol them in makeshift schools. In areas under SDF control, parents feared that education certificates would not be accepted by Government authorities and opted for home schooling instead. Children enrolled in public schools reported being harassed for wearing school uniforms known to be used in public schools in Government areas. In one case documented by the Commission, a father explained how, after being harassed and fined at one YPG staffed checkpoint, his children subsequently crossed wearing their regular clothes and only put on their school uniform when in Government controlled areas. Threats against parents by YPG members for enrolling their children in Government schools have also been recorded. The Commission received reports that local councils, with the support of Turkish authorities, are supporting the implementation of educational curriculum in schools in Afrin, al-Bab and Jarablus, which includes the Turkish language. 49. Terrorist organizations also extended their control over the educational sector. During its period of extensive territorial control, ISIL used education as a tool for indoctrination with the aim of creating a generation of supporters. Having completed mandatory religious education, girls above the age of 10 were removed from school in Raqqah and Aleppo governorates. Boys, meanwhile, followed a strict school curriculum mirroring the group’s ideology. They were given weapons training and routinely exposed to propaganda videos, including beheadings and executions. On 29 May 2014, in an apparent attempt to indoctrinate children and enforce loyalty, ISIL abducted a convoy of buses transporting 153 boys, aged 13 and 14 years, home to Ayn al-Arab (Kobane) from Aleppo city where they sat their final student exams.35 During their one-month long detention, boys were subjected to religious education, forced to watch videos of beheadings and severely punished if they disobeyed rules, which included speaking in the Kurdish language or attempting to escape. While 15 boys were released on 28 June as part of a prisoner exchange for ISIL members held by the YPG, a further prisoner exchange between the two armed groups, intended to take place on 18 July, failed. The situation then shifted from being one of hostage-taking as ISIL held the remaining children for the purposes of indoctrination, before releasing them in groups in August and September 2014. In Idlib Governorate, members of HTS issued decrees in schools emphasising that female students who did not abide by the dress code would be banned from attending classes. 36 35 36 See A/HRC/28/69, paras. 25-27. For an analysis of how Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham strictly interprets the tenets of Islamic law (sharia) in a manner that systematically discriminates against women and girls, see A/HRC/37/CRP.3, footnote 6. 13