Enab Baladi – Alaa Shaabo
With hands long used to grease and oil, Ahmad, 23, skillfully dismantles a car engine in his workshop in Latakia (a coastal city in northwestern Syria). The only son among three sisters, Ahmad made a personal decision at age 15 to leave school, driven by a strong desire for financial independence and to support his family of six.
His father’s government salary and attempts to earn additional income from fishing no longer covered the widening cost-of-living gap. Ahmad saw learning a trade as faster security and more tangible economic value than a certificate whose usefulness, in his view, had been shaken by harsh reality.
Today, he finds himself in a struggle with memory, trying to make up for what he missed educationally. He has discovered that a mind accustomed to hands-on work and quick technical fixes has great difficulty adapting to school curricula after years of interruption.
Ahmad’s story is only one example of a reality that is swallowing the future of an entire generation. UNICEF figures indicate that one in three schools in Syria is no longer usable because it has been damaged or destroyed by the war. This has contributed to more than 2.4 million Syrian children being out of school today. The organization also warned that more than one million other children are at risk of dropping out, a group most vulnerable to entering the unregulated labor market.
Financial independence and the trap of low wages
Ahmad’s choice to leave school stemmed from his belief that work was the shortest path to becoming a real support for his parents and sisters. But this early ambition for financial independence collided with a labor market that lacks even the most basic legal protections for adolescents.
Ahmad told Enab Baladi that his wage at the beginning of his training was only $5 a week. The amount, despite being symbolic, felt at the time like an “achievement” that freed him from having to ask others for help. He later realized it was the price he received for giving up years of foundational learning.
Beyond oversight and the law
For Ahmad, the smell of grease and the sound of engines felt more real than math equations. He did not realize that manual skill without scientific grounding can eventually become a ceiling that limits professional growth. This environment also carries physical and health risks. The International Labour Organization warns of fatal workplace accidents or long-term disabilities caused by heavy lifting and machine use at a developmental age.
Ahmad’s entry into work at 15 also exposes a legislative gap in Syria’s Child Rights Law issued in 2021. Article 36(A) explicitly states: “It is prohibited to employ a child who has not reached the age of 15.” However, Article 61, which addresses penalties, weakens protection. It sets prison sentences and fines for violating paragraphs (B, C, D), meaning employing a child in hazardous work, preventing a child from education, or depriving a child of a medical examination. But it does not set any penalty for violating paragraph (A), the core ban on employing children under 15. This absence of a deterrent penalty in Article 61 renders the prohibition largely formal, leaving the labor market open to adolescents at a critical age without employers fearing real legal consequences.
Psychological and educational impact
Through her direct work with students and adolescents in school settings, social worker Bushra Marwa observes that Ahmad’s case represents a model for a significant share of young people who have lost confidence in education as a tool for rapid material change.
Marwa told Enab Baladi that when an adolescent has money at an early age, it can give him a sense of parity with adults and an early independence from parental authority and the education system. This early separation carries psychological and social risks. The World Health Organization confirms that working children are more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and loss of self-respect because they carry responsibilities beyond their age.
Marwa added that dropping out of school creates what she called a “knowledge gap.” Adolescents who stay away from reading and analysis for years face an “educational shock” when they try to return. A brain used to rapid responses to mechanical problems struggles to focus on theoretical subjects. This is exactly what Ahmad is experiencing today as he tries to obtain his baccalaureate certificate.
A certificate as security and a chance for professional growth
Today’s labor reality shows that manual skill alone is no longer enough to compete in a market moving toward technology and digitalization. Leaving school confines young people to purely manual labor and deprives them of the ability to manage projects or understand complex engineering systems that require an academic background.
Ahmad now realizes that a “master” who holds a certificate has a broader horizon and stronger bargaining power in the market. His insistence on earning the baccalaureate stems from a desire to support his trade with scientific grounding that restores his confidence in his social standing.
This personal struggle reflects what analysts and researchers describe as deeper structural problems. In an analysis by writer Mohammad Rajab Smaq (December 2025), child labor is presented not merely as a result of poverty, but as a link in a system that reproduces poverty from one generation to the next. Depriving a child of education limits future chances of decent work, wastes human capital, and weakens the productivity of Syria’s economy and its capacity for reconstruction.
Guidance for parents
Based on the challenges social worker Bushra Marwa observes in the field, she offers a set of solutions:
- Direct adolescents’ interests toward formal vocational education.
- Rebuild the value of certification in adolescents’ awareness.
- Shared management and psychological support.
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