Amid Iraqi Chaos, Schools Fill After Long Decline

NY Times ^ | June 26, 2006 | SABRINA TAVERNISE

[neverdem]

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 25 — Enrollment in Iraqi schools has risen every year since the American invasion, according to Iraqi government figures, reversing more than a decade of declines and offering evidence of increased prosperity for some Iraqis.

Despite the violence that has plagued Iraq since the American occupation began three years ago, its schools have been quietly filling. The number of children enrolled in schools nationwide rose by 7.4 percent from 2002 to 2005, and in middle schools and high schools by 27 percent in that time, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.

The increase, which has greatly outpaced modest population growth during the same period, is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy landscape of bombs and killings that have shattered community life in many areas in western and central Iraq. And it is seen as an important indicator here in a country that used to pride itself on its education system, then saw enrollment and literacy fall during the later years of Saddam Hussein's rule.

Sorrows seep into the classrooms. During a chemistry exam at Hariri High School in Baghdad on Thursday morning, a random sample of students turned up one whose father had been killed three days before, another whose uncle had been killed in an American-led raid and yet another whose family was leaving Iraq for good once she finished. The official who helped prepare the statistics for this article was assassinated this month.

But while life in Baghdad grows more paralyzed — it was the only province in the country where primary school enrollment fell — the figures for the rest of Iraq show that everyday life goes on, particularly in the largely peaceful south, which experienced the biggest jumps, with some regions having above 40 percent enrollment increases since 2002...

[SandRat]

How can this be??? Cong Osama's MaMa Murry and Cong Mullah-Omar Murtha said it wasn't so.... < / sarc

[Minuteman23]

Another example of the amazing success of coalition-directed reconstruction that will not be headline news.

[1955Ford]

Sounds like the editor of the NYT ordered a positive story on the war on terror to counter all the criticism is getting for its recent treason.

[Texas Eagle]

Sorrows seep into the classrooms. During a chemistry exam at Hariri High School in Baghdad on Thursday morning, a random sample of students turned up one whose father had been killed three days before, another whose uncle had been killed in an American-led raid and yet another whose family was leaving Iraq for good once she finished. The official who helped prepare the statistics for this article was assassinated this month.

Leave it to al-NYT to find the cloud inside the silver lining.

[neverdem]

Another example of the amazing success of coalition-directed reconstruction that will not be headline news.

It's front page below the fold. I suspect that it's more secular penance for their perfidy, if not treason, in disclosing the government's exploiting of the SWIFT program to discover the financing of terrorism.

A Threat That Belongs Behind Bars (Gitmo)

Letter From Bill Keller on The Times's Banking Records Report Let the fool speak for himself.

The right not to know (NY Times discloses more sensitive info, helping terrorism!)

In Shirley Chisholm's Brooklyn, Rancor Over White Candidacy (Schumer & Hillary's tar baby?)

From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[garbageseeker]

This is a fantastic success, in part because we are there guaranteeing these children a bright future.

[Allegra]

Another example of the amazing success of coalition-directed reconstruction that will not be headline news.

Yeah, they had to slip that "amid chaos" in there.

Iraq is not nearly as "chaotic" as the media would have people think. I sometimes wonder just where it is they're talking about when I hold my nose and watch the news.

[Allegra]

But while life in Baghdad grows more paralyzed —

Not more paralyzed. Operation Together Forward is underway and has been for over a week. So the "paralysis" is due to checkpoints and troops all over town in order to rout out the terrorists, and it has been very successful so far.

Baghdad is in the process of getting unparalyzed.

I think the media just accidentally left that part out. ;-P

[neverdem]

Thanks for your service. Stay safe!

[Allegra]

Thanks for your service.

Thank you for yours.

I'm just a contractor. You were the real thing. ;-)

[Pharmboy]

Although they will--rarely--publish a positive article on the war, normally they would bury it on Saturday. Perhaps this is just so they can say that hillary was right all along...

[syriacus]

Have we heard if sales of the Times blip upwards when they "expose" federal tactics in the WOT? Maybe the Times is printing leaks merely to use those days for reporting circulation numbers. Even some conservatives might buy the rag that day, in order to argue with some first-hand knowledge of what the Times said. (I wouldn't buy it).

[RJL]

Sounds like the editor of the NYT ordered a positive story on the war on terror to counter all the criticism is getting for its recent treason.

But the NYT still couldn't just report good news as plainly good news.

Amid Iraqi Chaos, Schools Fill After Long Decline

No liberal bias at the NYT though!