Dhaka, Nov. 1 -- In the battered countryside of southern Idlib, families displaced for years by Syria's civil war are returning home - and sending their children back to schools stripped bare by conflict and looting.
Nearly a year after former President Bashar Assad was ousted in a rebel offensive, hundreds of schools remain in ruins.
Those that reopened, like the elementary school in Maar Shamarin, operate without windows, desks, or even running water.
Safiya al-Jurok, who fled the town five years ago, now lives with her family in a tent beside their destroyed house.
Her three children sit cross-legged on thin blankets in classrooms where sunlight pours through broken windows and bullet-scarred walls. "If it rains, it'll rain on my chi...