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Amid isolation, Iraq's educational system deteriorates
October 14, 1999 From Correspondent Rula Amin BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At the Tunis School in Saddam City, one of Baghdad's poorest neighborhoods, there is only one teacher for every 45 students. And like most schools in Iraq these days, there has been a steady decline in what the school offers its students. Supplies are so scarce that children have to bring chalk for their teachers. "Physically, we consider more than 50 percent of (Iraq's) schools as totally unfit in terms of leaking roofs, water, sanitation," says Anupama Rao Singh, UNICEF's director in Iraq. "We also believe the country has been isolated from academic development in the rest of the world. The quality of education has seriously deteriorated."
One major factor in the deterioration of educational institutions in Iraq is decreased investment. UNICEF estimates that since the Persian Gulf War, the amount of money allocated by the government for education has dropped 90 percent. Some teachers make $5 a month -- less than 1 percent of a typical teacher's salary before the war. Most schools are so overcrowded that students attend in two or three shifts. At the Tunis School, the first shift begins at 8 a.m. and the second at noon, which means students get only four hours of instruction each day.
Students must bring water from home because the school doesn't have any. Four or five students have to share a single book. "It's an epicenter for this human tragedy," says Hanz Von Sponeck, the U.N. humanitarian program coordinator in Iraq. "It's not just food that makes a healthy individual." Before the war, education was totally free in Iraq. Now, parents are required to contribute -- and many simply don't have the money. According to the Iraqi government, more than 1 million Iraqi students have failed to enroll in school, about 20 percent of primary and secondary school students. These deficiencies in education have long-term repercussions because today's children and youth will be the future leaders of Iraqi society -- and many of them simply aren't learning. RELATED STORIES: U.S. using concrete bombs in raids on Iraq RELATED SITES: ArabNet -- Iraq, Contents
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