High School Students Confront a Future-Antagonistic System

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

Today, the long-anticipated crisis since the start of the academic year has erupted. The Minister of Education decided to change the education system by scrapping paper exams and introducing electronic ones without giving students any training on this new system. This move ignored key factors of educational development, such as curriculum quality, teacher training, and class sizes. For the third day in a row, the system has failed, leading students to protest in numbers not seen for nearly three years. They are fighting against a system that jeopardizes their future just to sell some tablets.

The sight of students protesting in the streets has undoubtedly alarmed the authorities. After almost three years of calm, this scene has returned, led by students no older than 16. Despite their lack of organization and small numbers, the regime responded harshly. Several students were arrested, and even young girls barely out of childhood, were harassed. Imagine the mindset of these students, arrested before turning 16 for opposing a failing educational system. How can the regime claim to care about education and student welfare when it brutalizes students for protesting the absence of exams and the system’s failure?

The students still have another chance. They are not just up against the Minister but a system that profits at their expense. This chance lies in organizing themselves, as the regime has deprived them of student unions within schools. They must find new ways to unite and overcome this system. This educational system is ready to sacrifice students from poor and middle-class backgrounds while children of the wealthy and government officials remain unaffected, comfortably attending international schools. Meanwhile, other students are treated as test subjects and financial tools, disregarding their well-being.

A regime that uses the educational process for its propaganda goals and confronts youth with such brutality and hatred is not only oppressive to its opponents but also hostile to the future. This regime, which has spent years erasing the past and targeting anything related to the revolution, stifles the present and suppresses any attempt to express dissent. It knows well that controlling the past and present will not protect them from the future these young students represent.