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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Jan. - 3 Feb. 1999 Issue No. 414 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Jan. - 3 Feb. 1999 Issue No. 414
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Focus Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Minds under siege
By Khaled DawoudAt the Beesan elementary school on the outskirts of Baghdad, children between the ages of six and twelve greet visitors not by saying "good morning" or "hello", but by collectively chanting, "Long live the leader Saddam Hussein! Long live Iraq!"
Yet Iraq's dictator can no longer do much for Iraq's student population of nearly 4.5 million. According to UN reports and Iraqi Minister of Education Fahd Al-Shakra, educational standards have deteriorated sharply since the UN imposed tight economic sanctions after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Wafaa Mohamed, a teacher at Beesan, says that the school used to be rated among the best in Baghdad. Now, nearly all the windows in the school are broken and have been replaced with nylon sheeting and cardboard. The walls are filled with holes and have not been painted for nearly seven years; students have decorated them with pictures of Saddam hugging and kissing children.
But the state of the classrooms is not the most depressing aspect: the classes, designed for an average of 25 to 30 students, now have to take between 50 and 60. Students are squeezed three to a bench and some are forced to sit on the floor.
No funds have been earmarked for schools. The desks are a motley collection, salvaged and scrounged by teachers and pupils. When the benches and chairs wear out children take them home to be fixed.
Sarra Mortada, 7, a student at Beesan elementary school in Baghdad. Despite the deteriorating condition of her school, she insists she will grow up to be a doctor photo: Khaled Dawoud
When they are finally beyond repair, families improvise replacements from scraps of wood. In nearly all of the 24 classes in Beesan, named after a town in Palestine, students sit at homemade desks bearing their names.
According to Al-Shakra, half of the books given to students are new and half old. But in Beesan, teachers said that most of their books were old with torn and missing pages, adding to the many problems they face.
Teachers laughed when asked about food or milk given to the children. "We have nearly five or six students who faint every day because they did not have any breakfast," said Hyam Tawfik who has been working as a teacher for 35 years.
"Before, I used to bring the students real milk, dates, eggs and cheese to teach them how to read and write the names. Now I have to draw them. We even ask students to bring two sticks of chalk each day because we have no budget to buy chalk," she added.
After telling the sad story, Tawfik turned suddenly to the seven-year-old students from the 2nd grade, and asked, "Who is depriving you of milk?" The children responded, "America! Down! Down USA!"
Al-Shakra admits the deteriorating level of education in Iraq, saying that teaching is no longer an attractive profession. "Teachers are paid 1,500 dinars [less than one US dollar] when they are first appointed. Adding another 2,000 dinars given in food rations, the monthly salary reaches 3,500. This makes many teachers take other jobs," he said in an interview.
Drop-outs from schools, especially among girls, are rising. In 1989-90, nearly 90,000 students dropped out of school, including 35,000 at elementary level, said Al-Shakra. In 1995, the figure was 150,000, including 90,000 at elementary level.
"Families no longer send their children to school and instead make them work, especially in rural and poor areas," Al-Shakra said. He added that before sanctions were imposed, Iraqi police used to fine families who failed to send their children to school between the ages of six and twelve. "Now, we cannot do this because families would not be able to pay the fines," he added.
Because of lack of funds, schools have been forced to work three shifts between 6am and 6pm. The education minister said that schools designed for 700 to 900 students, now take up to 3,000 students.
"This not only means that children will get less education, but also that buildings will deteriorate even more quickly at a time when we have stopped building new schools," Al-Shakra said.
Al-Shakra admits that there seems to be no solution in sight. His worry is that the crumbling educational system will not only affect personally the present generation of students but threatens the future of Iraq as a country.
"This is what the United States wants from sanctions. It wants to destroy Iraq and its future. Raining us with bombs and cruise missiles is one way. Depriving our children of education is another way, which is even more dangerous," he added.
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