One day recently, well over four years into the Syria war, government forces were trying to fend off rebel and Islamic State attacks in Aleppo, Deraa, Hasakeh and elsewhere, while simultaneously unleashing an offensive with their Hezbollah allies on rebel-held Zabadani near the Lebanese border.
A bright red URGENT suddenly flashed at the top of the homepage of the official Syrian state news agency SANA and on the TV screens. The momentous news was an announcement from the Ministry of Education that 68.8 per cent of pupils had passed in the first round of their secondary school certificate exams.
