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The Effects of the U.S. Aggression Against Iraq
on Education
1. (4157) damaged school buildings in all governorates, excluding the self
rule region .
2. (323,850) damaged school desks .
3. (1,343,438) damaged school library Books.
4. (488) damaged computer systems ( operational equipment included ) .
5. ( 107 ) vocational schools with damaged equipment .
6. (898,181) damaged educational teaching - aids .
The cost of this damage is estimated at I.D.( 214,626,319 ) according to prices during the
war, i.e. $645,000,000 (six hundred and forty-five million American Dollars) . This damage
is estimated at approximately I.D 450,000,000,000 (four- hundred fifty billion Iraqi
Dinars) today .
Effects of the Embargo on Iraq
on Education
First: Quantitative Damage
1. School Buildings
A) School building construction plans have come to a halt:
In order to meet an increase in the number of students, in addition to disengaging second
- shift and third - shift school attendance, and replacing ruined buildings, the present
need for school buildings is estimated at (4372).
B) Increasing problems in the restoration and maintenance of existing school buildings.
It is necessary to reconstruct or renovate (8613) buildings, in one way or another, out of
a total of (10292) buildings . This represents 84% of the total buildings, at all
educational stages.
C) A rise in highly crowded classrooms due to an increase
in the number of students unproportional to the
available buildings :
The average number of pupils in a primary school amounted (355) pupils . In the year 1996
/ 1997, the following schools registered the following figure:
| School |
Location |
Number of pupils |
| Al-RIHAB Primary |
Al-Risafah Al-thaniya/
General Directorate |
4670 |
| Al- QUAWMYA Primary |
Al-Risafah Al-thaniya
General Directorate |
2418 |
| Al- AKRAMIN Primary |
Babylon General
Directorate |
3654 |
| IZZALARAB Primary |
Babylon General
Directorate |
3138 |
2- Educational requirements
It is necessary to provide the following items due to the sharp shortage in the
requirements of the educational proces:
- 1,000,000 Desks.
- 750,000 Books of school libraries.
- 500,555 Teaching - Aids ( equipment and supplies that must be imported).
- 62,000,000 school copy-books.
- 18,000,000 test copy-books.
- 26,000,000 test papers.
- 68,000,000 copies of school text-books.
- 15,0000,000 pencils.
- 23,000,000 pencil- sharpeners.
- 5,000,000 rulers.
- 5,000,000 geometrical-cases.
- 90,000,000 sticks of chalk.
3- In the Field of Production
Stoppage of production of the Ministry's printing presses and workshops . The annual loss
is estimated at I.D. (1,958,092,560) .
4- Quantitative Indicators of the educational
development plan
A- The number of kindergarten children, and students, enrolled at various educational
levels has dropped, in addition to the fact that the statistics of the educational
development plan have not been realized in this field , as well as in respect to the
number of schools:
| Stage |
Planned numbers for enrollment
(1996 - 1997) |
Actually enrolled
pupils
(1996 - 1997) |
| Kindergarten |
113,482 |
73,728 |
| Primary |
3,411,044 |
2,957,970 |
| Secondary |
1,583,152 |
1,056,812 |
| Vocational |
110,391 |
82,786 |
| Total |
5,218,069 |
4,171,296 |
A number of (1,020,747) students have failed to enroll . This represents 21% of the total
number of pupils and students expected to attend schools at various educational levels, in
accordance with the educational developement plan, as of 1994 - 1995 upto 2005/2005.
| Stage |
Number of required schools
(1996 - 1997) |
Number of
existing schools
(1996 - 1997) |
| Kindergarten |
710 |
596 |
| Primary |
8,760 |
8,300 |
| Secondary |
2,821 |
2,729 |
| Vocational |
276 |
264 |
| Total |
12,567 |
11,889 |
A total number of (678) schools to be established as planned has not been achieved.
B- School - dropouts:
School - dropouts have increased during the period 1991 - 1996 as compared to 1989 - 1990
.
Number Of School- Drop - outs
| Year |
Primary |
Intermediate |
Preparatory |
Vocational |
Students of teacher
training institute |
Total |
| 1989-1990 |
59,673 |
33,577 |
2,442 |
2,014 |
132 |
97,838 |
| 1991-1992 |
93,750 |
48,605 |
2,221 |
3,077 |
132 |
147,785 |
| 1992-1993 |
67,706 |
52,731 |
4,085 |
2,722 |
124 |
127,368 |
| 1993-1994 |
71,705 |
49,374 |
3,803 |
2,313 |
142 |
127,337 |
| 1994-1995 |
86,412 |
58,465 |
4,079 |
2,337 |
191 |
151,484 |
| 1995-1996 |
89,531 |
53,056 |
4,969 |
2,150 |
164 |
149,870 |
C- Drop- outs in the Labour Force
The number of drop- outs up to 31-12-1996 is as follows:-
Permanent Drop-outs (10217): 3.6% of the labour force
Temporary Drop-outs (23394): 8.3% of the labour force.
Second: Effects of the Embargo on the Qualitative Aspects :
A- Numerous studies undertaken in respect to "Drop - outs in schooling"as well
as studies on the effects of the embargo on the behavioural aspects of the students and
teaching staff, including teaching and learning, have disclosed the following :
1- The problem of dropouts in public and vocational education has worsened due to the
economic effects of the embargo on the family's income, on the one hand , and the social
effects arising out of the weakened belief in the benefits of education, on the other .
2- The increase of undesired behavioural problems in the educational domain, such as
robbery encroachment on property, loose adhesion to moral values, cheating, bribery and
forgery.
3- Loss of faith in education among the students .
4- Loss of faith in teaching among the teaching staff .
5- A lack of parental concern of childrens in shcool performance .
6- A loose relationship between the local community and the school, due to the parents
engagement in earning their livelihood .
B) The embargo has passively affected the continuity of the scientific and cultural
interaction with the outside world , besides liquidating most of the cultural agreements
concluded between Iraq and the rest of the countries in the world.
C) Malnutrition and anemia, resulting from the embargo, have decapacitated the children
and students, in general thereby affecting their school activities in a negative way.
D) Numerous Iraqi schools abroad have been closed . For, there were sixteen primary and
secondary schools, with a total enrollment of (7913) students, before the embargo; whereas
there are now only eleven schools with a total of (520) students .
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