As you think up a thousand different ways of avoiding impending exams – remember those girls who posted an advert on Gumtree looking for someone to run them over in a car so that they were injured just enough that they didn’t have to sit their exams? – have a thought for those who can’t do exams. Sorry to get all Bono about this, but there’s a group of besieged children in Syria who, despite revising under shellfire, have still revised. In fact, they’re so prepped for the exams that the UN have assisted in getting them to safety while they take the tests.
The 120 students, who have been living in the refugee camp of Yarmouk in the suburbs of Damascus for the past 18 months, were driven past the borders of both the Syrian and rebel forces in a convoy.
Accompanied by the UN, they were reunited with relatives on the government’s side of the borders, and explained how difficult things are in Yarmouk: ‘We have to eat food that no one can eat – grass, spices,’ a student called Mohammad told the BBC. ‘Life is very difficult inside; you can’t understand it until you live there.’
Another, Khaled, said: ‘Every day we go to school we put our hands on our hearts but we insist we have to go to school. Of course, we were scared but we have to continue. If we lose our future no one can help us.’
Even in war-torn Syria, it’s still the case that if you don’t pass exams at 14, you can’t continue your studies. So the students will be allowed to live in UN and Syrian government accommodation for the two-week exam period. They’re due back at the camp afterwards, but it’s not known if they’ll definitely return. This could essentially be an escape for the young people.
Chris Guinness, a spokesperson for the UN Relief and Works Agency, told The Times that the situation is so ‘dire’ that over the past four months, the 18,000 civilians living there (down from 150,000 before the conflict broke) have only had 25 per cent of the nutrition they need.
‘These are exams conducted in a context of hopelessness and despair. God knows where they think their future lies. Imagine a British child doing the most important public exams of their lives having had only 25 per cent of the food they need.’
Puts a bit of perspective on all the people out there feeling daunted by French orals and macroeconomics, doesn’t it?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.