Spring Break
Violence still taking toll on Baghdad education
Raviya H. Ismail and Sahar Issa - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 5/22/08 Section: Real News
BAGHDAD _ Murtadha Abdul Zahara is in his final year of high school and must take examinations to begin college next year.
The problem is he hasn't been to school since March 23, because it's been closed due to violence between Shiite Muslim militants and U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the Sadr City neighborhood where he lives. So now he waits.
"We didn't finish the textbooks we had," said Zahara, 19. "All of Sadr City doesn't know what is going to happen with final exams."
The end of the school year in Baghdad is similar to those in other countries. Final examinations, graduation parties, playing some catch up. But for all its similarities, many of these schools also contend with the sobering realities of being in a war zone.
Students are absent for long periods because of violence. Parents keep their children home because they fear kidnappings or other threats. Schools shut down for days and weeks at a time when violence surges, meaning courses can never really be completed.
Yet students are still required to fulfill their final exams, whatever the violence. For students like Zahara it's a time of anxiety.
"I'm worried about my future because it depends on this year," he said.
When American forces invaded Iraq more than five years ago, rebuilding the country's education system was a massive priority. U.S. officials touted the thousands of schools that had been repaired and repainted. Hundreds of millions of U.S. government dollars went to companies to provide support and training to Iraqi educators.
But whatever progress Americans had hoped for vanished as first the Sunni Muslim insurgency and then sectarian warfare between Sunnis and Shiites exploded. A recent visit to schools in different Baghdad neighborhoods shows the price the violence has taken.
"During the past five years attendance has not been regular," said Juhaina Mahmoud Ahmed, a teacher at the Tabari Primary School for Girls located in the east part of Baghdad known as New Baghdad. "Being late or absent because of lack of security, explosions, killing and kidnappings has become the norm."
The problem is he hasn't been to school since March 23, because it's been closed due to violence between Shiite Muslim militants and U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the Sadr City neighborhood where he lives. So now he waits.
"We didn't finish the textbooks we had," said Zahara, 19. "All of Sadr City doesn't know what is going to happen with final exams."
The end of the school year in Baghdad is similar to those in other countries. Final examinations, graduation parties, playing some catch up. But for all its similarities, many of these schools also contend with the sobering realities of being in a war zone.
Students are absent for long periods because of violence. Parents keep their children home because they fear kidnappings or other threats. Schools shut down for days and weeks at a time when violence surges, meaning courses can never really be completed.
Yet students are still required to fulfill their final exams, whatever the violence. For students like Zahara it's a time of anxiety.
"I'm worried about my future because it depends on this year," he said.
When American forces invaded Iraq more than five years ago, rebuilding the country's education system was a massive priority. U.S. officials touted the thousands of schools that had been repaired and repainted. Hundreds of millions of U.S. government dollars went to companies to provide support and training to Iraqi educators.
But whatever progress Americans had hoped for vanished as first the Sunni Muslim insurgency and then sectarian warfare between Sunnis and Shiites exploded. A recent visit to schools in different Baghdad neighborhoods shows the price the violence has taken.
"During the past five years attendance has not been regular," said Juhaina Mahmoud Ahmed, a teacher at the Tabari Primary School for Girls located in the east part of Baghdad known as New Baghdad. "Being late or absent because of lack of security, explosions, killing and kidnappings has become the norm."
Be the first to comment on this story