Posted on 06/06/2005 7:49:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
BAGHDAD -- Kassim used to teach geography in the morning and spend afternoons repairing shoes in the streets of the central Iraqi town of Azizyah. Those days are over.
Iraq's 300,000 teachers have seen vast changes since the regime of Saddam Hussein fell in April 2003 and Kassim can now feed his four children without having to cobble a living together.
From an average monthly salary of 10,000 Iraqi dinars (around $2 to $3 at the time) plus food subsidies, they can now earn from 300,000 to 400,000 Iraqi dinars ($200 to $270).
The result, says 40-year-old English teacher Jawad Mizhr, is that they can now do their job.
Such is the difference that retired teachers want their old jobs back, if only for a year or two so that they can qualify for vastly improved pensions.
Groups like the United Nations children's fund UNICEF and USAID are renewing infrastructure and training teachers to get the level of Iraqi education beyond where it was 25 years ago.
"Iraq's educational system used to be among the best in the region," the UN Development Program (UNDP) said in its 2004 survey of living conditions in Iraq.
But though deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein initially sought to eradicate illiteracy, the combined effects of wars and economic sanctions since 1980 took their toll on teachers and students alike.
In rural areas and among girls in particular illiteracy is now widespread, but a $5.8-million USAID program is aimed at turning things around at 84 "model" primary and secondary schools across the country.
In-service training of 100,000 teachers and administrators will "promote child-centered teaching techniques, and introduce state-of-the-art instructional methods in science, math, English and social studies", a statement by the group said.
Computer and science labs are to be installed in many of the "model" schools - not in the sense of being exceptional, but rather with the goal of setting a standard for future development.
The program has set a modest budget of $70,000 per school to demonstrate what can be done and to encourage future donors to extend the program across Iraq.
From Azizyah, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Baghdad, Mizhr said in the past that families felt that school was not important because harsh economic conditions rendered future prospects bleak regardless of one's qualifications.
"Now many families are thinking about having their children continue their education because jobs are much more important."
Teachers are also more motivated. Those sent to neighboring Jordan for training to be shared with colleagues back home consistently spent evenings in optional workshops, a USAID program director said.
"It was the first time someone was investing in them," he said.
UNICEF is using a "double cascade" approach whereby 25 people selected by Iraq's ministry of education go through a six-week program before training 440 others who train still more in turn.
Its Accelerated Learning Program targets areas with the lowest enrolment rates and aims to provide out-of-school youth with the equivalent of six years of primary education in roughly half that time.
The goals are ambitious but program officials are aware of certain limits.
One of the ministry's priorities was to create a curriculum that included Islamic studies, an area that USAID did not feel was appropriate for them to work on.
Help is available to reform what will be taught and how, but Iraqi officials are to take the lead in curriculum content.
Among the things that Mizhr said remained to be improved were practical issues such as who was posted where.
Within the ministry the atmosphere is much better and teachers can now speak their minds, but there is a surplus of specialized teachers in areas like English and science in some schools and not enough in others, he said.
Some materials were also now out of date. "We're still using old textbooks, we've just removed the pictures of Saddam."
Waiting for the US MSM to be all over this.
UN is going to indoctrinate the iraqis with liberalism and socialism and construct a top down system that is doomed to failure. What is needed is a charter school type structure. Although, maybe at this point getting an adequate public school system together is preferable... i dunno - probably more difficult to start once the teachers get entrenched and start organizing against reform...
Huh? I thought everything was honky-dorey until the evil American Imperial Army, led by Darth Bush, deposed the benevolent Iraqi ruler Saddam??
No Arab Left Behind.
Also Known As: Stories you will NEVER see in the unbiased American MSM.
What would we do without the UN?
Spend American blood and give the education over to the globalists.
"...the combined effects of wars and economic sanctions since 1980 took their toll on teachers and students alike."
What about the teachings of TROP? It's a chicken-or-egg question, but TROP and illiteracy seem to be linked (except by the MSM).
Excellent point. anything the UN touches results in pain and suffering of the individual. Iraq would do better to have NO UN personnel in the country. All schools should be private. The single biggest reason our Republic is dying is because of government schools. Public schooling is where the brainwashing of most American's begin. I pray Iraq doesn't follow our lead. The UN is a socialists wet dream. Stalin and Hitler would be supporters of the evil UN.
Tragic indeed. To spill our Warrior's blood to have the anti-US UN move in disgusts me. I am sure Blair feels good. With each passing year, I come to despise the UN more and more. To it's supporter's I find myself praying for their demise. I have absolutely no doubt in my soul, that evil emanates for every action of the UN. It does nothing to serve the cause of Liberty and the individual. It exists for one reason -- to bring world socialism and misery the world over. Hell awaits all those who work for the UN and who believe in the UN.
But, are they still including "jihad" in religious instruction?
Where's that great pension coming from?
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