The United Nations defines an illiterate person as “someone who cannot, with understanding, both read and write a short, simple statement on his or her everyday life. One out of four Iraqi women are illiterate! The figure is lower for men, at about 11%. That leaves about 6 million Iraqis unable to express themselves in writing or read about the world around them.
This, after Iraq led the region in literacy for many years. In 1982 Iraq was awarded The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) prize for eradicating illiteracy. What happened?
Well, the 1980's sanctions took a big bite. Educational materials were on the list and everything from pencils, books, and computers were kept away from schools.The invasion and occupation that followed brought the final blows to the destruction of Iraq's educational system.
Followin
g that was the US led invasion and occupation which resulted in the physical destruction of many schools by bombs, rockets, fires, looting, and wanton vandalism by US forces (among others). When a school is bombed not only lives are lost. There is also a conviciton on the part of many parents that sending their children to school is not a safe option.
Then came the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) rulings that resulted in a) all Ba'athists being removed from thier government jobs. Almost all teachers were registered Ba'athists; an unstated requirement for employment, b) Salaries for teachers plummeted to about US$2/day forcing many to leave for other jobs or other countries, and c) a mass exodus of educators fueled by perceptions of dire futures and not to be under emphasized assassinations of educators. Many schools closed or became educationally ineffective child care centers.
In the last few years a great many students have left school to help their families earn money.
Althought the educational system is repairing itself, it is a painfully slow process. There is so much serious need in so many critical areas that Education is not high on the list of funding.
Is the United States reponsible for this mess? Sure, if you take the position "my country, my government, my war." Not, if you believe that Iraq should care for itself and "it's not our business to interfere." We find the latter view ludicrous in the face of what the US unleashed in Iraq.
So what can we do, as a nation, to help repair what we have broken?
Direct funding aid to Iraq's educational systems will go a long way to restoring Iraq to its former position as the intellectual and educational capital of the Arab world.
You can contact your representatives to ask that we, as a nation, begin to repair what we helped destroy. We can remove the troops, reduce expenses, and replace the expenditures with real aid to real people in real need.
August 27, 2011, by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact
References: IndexMundi, CIA.gov, IraqSolidaridad , WorldBank
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