Students attend class inside the Maar Shmarin Primary School, its walls scarred by bullet holes from the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A student reads a book while leaning against a wall of the Maar Shmarin Primary School, its surface scarred by bullet holes from the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A teacher conducts a lesson with students inside a classroom of the Maar Shmarin Primary School in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Students take part in an activity inside a classroom of the Maar Shmarin Primary School in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A classroom inside a school destroyed during the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups is seen in the devastated Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
A mural on the wall depicting students from the Baath Youth Organization appears at the entrance of a school destroyed during the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the devastated Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Students write in their notebooks while sitting on the floor inside a classroom of the Maar Shmarin Primary School, scarred by bullet holes dating back to the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Students walk past a wall riddled with bullet holes and the impact mark of a mortar shell on the street, dating back to the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A man pushes his bicycle past the ruins of a school destroyed during the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the devastated Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
A student points at the whiteboard during a lesson inside a classroom of the Maar Shmarin Primary School in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Students attend a lesson inside a classroom of the Maar Shmarin Primary School in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Students gather in the courtyard of the Maar Shmarin Primary School, surrounded by houses destroyed during the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Students play soccer in the courtyard of a rehabilitated school, with a damaged building bearing graffiti praising former President Hafez Assad seen in the background, in the Damascus suburb of Douma, Syria, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Students play in the courtyard of the Maar Shmarin Primary School, its walls scarred by bullet holes from the fighting between forces loyal to former President Bashar Assad and rebel groups, in the village of Maar Shmarin, in the Idlib countryside, Syria, Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Audio By Carbonatix
1:11 AM on Friday, October 31
By GHAITH ALSAYED and OMAR SANADIKI
In the southern Idlib countryside, once a frontline in Syrian civil war, residents are trickling back to their villages after years in exile.
Repairing and reopening damaged and looted schools is key to the return of the displaced, but nearly a year after former President Bashar Assad was ousted in a rebel offensive, hundreds of schools are still destroyed.
Millions of children in Syria remain out of school, while others are attending class in gutted buildings without basic supplies.
This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
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