[Vision2020] Iraqi Higher Ed in Shambles

[Dick Sherwin]

This is too bad.  It is sad the Muslim world chooses to turn in on itself
and eat its own.  No wonder nothing of value to mankind comes from such a
situation.  The Muslim world has been killing each other for centuries over
sectarian stupidity.  I doubt anythng will ever change that.  Of course, the
far left will put the blame on Bush, even though this carnage has been going
on long before he was even born.

Dick S
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nickgier at adelphia.net>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 11:11 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Iraqi Higher Ed in Shambles


> raq's universities and schools near collapse as teachers and pupils flee
>
> Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
> Thursday October 5, 2006
> The Guardian
>
> Iraq's school and university system is in danger of collapse in large
areas of the country as pupils and teachers take flight in the face of
threats of violence.
>
> Professors and parents have told the Guardian they no longer feel safe to
attend their educational institutions. In some schools and colleges, up to
half the staff have fled abroad, resigned or applied to go on prolonged
vacation, and class sizes have also dropped by up to half in the areas that
are the worst affected.
>
> Professionals in higher education, particularly those teaching the
sciences and in health, have been targeted for assassination. Universities
from Basra in the south to Kirkuk and Mosul in the north have been
infiltrated by militia organisations, while the same militias from Islamic
organisations regularly intimidate female students at the school and
university gates for failing to wear the hijab.
>
> Women teachers have been ordered by their ministry to adopt Islamic codes
of clothing and behaviour.
>
> "The militias from all sides are in the universities. Classes are not
happening because of the chaos, and colleagues are fleeing if they can,"
said Professor Saad Jawad, a lecturer in political science at Baghdad
University.
>
> "The situation is becoming completely unbearable. I decided to stay where
many other professors have left. But I think it will reach the point where I
will have to decide.
>
> "A large number have simply left the country, while others have applied to
go on prolonged sick leave. We are using MA and PhD students to fill in the
gaps."
>
> Wadh Nadhmi, who also teaches politics in Baghdad, said: "What has been
happening with the murders of professors involved in the sciences is that a
lot of those involved in medicine, biology, maths have fled. The people who
have got the money are sending their children abroad to study. A lot - my
daughter is one of them - are deciding to finish their higher education in
Egypt."
>
> It is not only in Baghdad that the universities are beginning to suffer
from the security situation. In Mosul, too, professors complain of a system
now approaching utter disarray.
>
> Mohammed U, a 60-year-old science professor who asked for his full name
not to be disclosed, spoke to the Guardian after returning from the funeral
of a colleague, a law professor and head of the law faculty, who died in an
explosion.
>
> "Education here is a complete shambles. Professors are leaving, and the
situation - the closed roads and bridges - means that both students and
teachers find it difficult to get in for classes. In some departments in my
institute attendance is down to a third. In others we have instances of no
students turning up at all.
>
> "Students are really struggling. To get them through at all, we have had
to lower academic levels. We have to go easy on them. The whole system is
becoming rapidly degraded."
>
> The situation is reflected in many of Iraq's schools. "Education in my
area is collapsing," said a teacher from a high school in Amariya, who quit
four months ago. "Children can't get to school because of road blocks. The
parents of others have simply withdrawn them from the school because of the
fear of kidnapping.
>
> "If children have to travel by car, we are much less likely to see them.
When I left, we had 50% attendance. We see parents when they come in to ask
for the children to have a 'vacation', and they admit they are too scared to
let them come.
>
> "Between September 8 and 28 two members of the staff were murdered. The
staff was supposed to be 42. Now there are only 20."
>
> It is hardest of all on young Iraqis, most of whom are desperate for an
education. Ala Mohammed, a high school student from Zafaraniya, had hoped to
go to university this year. But her college is in Adhamiya, a neighbourhood
notorious for violence, so she has been forced to ask for a deferral. "The
journey is too long and too unsafe. I don't know whether I will be going to
college or stay jailed at home."
>
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