Minister of Education Dr. Saleh al-Rashed said that the ministry and its affiliated bodies finished preparations for the new school year which is set to begin on Sunday, September 18th. In an interview with the Syrian TV, al-Rashed said that all of the 22,500 schools across Syria are fully prepared to receive the 5.6 million students and 390,000 teachers who will be heading to school on Sunday. He said that 95 million school books have been printed at a cost of SYP 2.2 billion, and that around 99% of these books have already been distributed. Al-Rashed pointed out that throughout summer, the ministry conducted meetings with people across governorates to ehar their suggestions and opinions regarding the ministry's approach for developing curricula, adding that parts of the curricula have been amended based on information and remarks from the previous school year and suggestions of parents and teachers. He also noted that the ministry distributed 16,000 computers and 200,000 educational aids among schools and carried out teacher transfers that meet the ministry's needs and teachers' desires, allowing for redressing vacancies by contracting teachers from outside the ministry's staff.