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World - Middle East

Amid isolation, Iraq's educational system deteriorates

four students
At the Tunis School in Saddam City, Iraq, a scarcity of supplies causes four students to use the same textbook  

October 14, 1999
Web posted at: 9:28 p.m. EDT (0128 GMT)

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."

 VIDEO
VideoCorrespondent Rula Amin looks at Iraq's education system
Windows Media 28K 80K
 

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.

crowded classroom
Overcrowded classrooms have forced students to attend schools in four-hour shifts  

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.



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Security Council fails to agree on Iraq policy
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RELATED SITES:
ArabNet -- Iraq, Contents
The United Nations
United Nations Agreements on Human Rights
Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations
Iraqi National Congress
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