Protests in Damascus over the “Similarity Penalty” Prompt Ministry of Education to Backtrack

Yesterday, the capital Damascus witnessed a protest gathering in front of the Ministry of Education building, attended by dozens of mothers and female students coming from Latakia, Jableh, and other coastal regions of Syria. They rejected the decision to give hundreds of students a zero grade in the subjects of chemistry and mathematics under the label of the “similarity penalty.”

According to sources from the “Syrian Observatory,” the protesters insisted on meeting the Minister of Education to express their rejection of what they described as an “unfair” and “illogical” decision, noting that the chemistry exam is automated, which makes textual similarity between answers unlikely.

The protest lasted for about three hours, amid intervention by security forces who worked to disperse the protesters and confiscated some phones to prevent the spread of recorded videos.

At the end of the protest, the Minister of Education met with several mothers and announced the withdrawal of the “similarity penalty,” starting to gradually restore the grades to the affected students, estimated to be around 600 students, some of whom received higher marks after the adjustment.

The incident sparked widespread controversy in Syrian society, amid accusations of irregularities in the grading process and hints of sectarian motives behind this year’s high school exam results.