In Iraq, however, as in the United States, many of the needs and problems are the same. “There are some universal truths in education,” Arsht told the Dallas Morning News. “In some ways, educators here are just like ones back home.” Yet, in an editorial in a US newspaper, an Iraqi-born US resident and public school teacher wrote, “To work, the system must reflect the interests of the Iraqis. While I do not object to having some components of the US education system integrated, it should not be a replica of what the United States has.”

A Plan of Action

Hoping to realize their vision for Iraq’s future through education, US officials have removed the class on “Patriotic Education” from the Iraqi curriculum and added classes on human rights and democracy. But the first priority of the United States ought to be helping to strengthen the school system before promoting values through it. Otherwise, the Americanization of the school system will run the larger risk of making the Iraqi people resent the US presence even more than they already do.

Some US advisers have since left Iraq, though promising to strengthen ties between Iraqi and US schools. Aladin Alwan, a former official from the World Health Organization, has been appointed to take over Iraq’s Ministry of Education, and on March 31, 2004, he announced that the national curriculum will teach students how Hussein and the Baath party ruled the Iraqi people by repression. But there are long-term problems to which the United States must commit in order to truly improve Iraqi education.

First, the United States must make it safe for Iraqi children to go to school, which means securing Iraqi residential areas. About a quarter of Iraq’s 14.5 million children do not attend school. According to an October 15, 2004 article in Agence France Presse, 3.6 million children were documented as enrolled in primary school in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2000, as compared to the 4.3 million Iraqi children now. While parents are willing to send their children to school, the problem is that there are not enough schools. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates, around 5,000 new schools should be built to accommodate overcrowding as some classrooms usually hold 70 or more students.

Another problem is that parents are immensely concerned with their children’s safety in going to school. Walla Faik, a 17-year-old student at Baghdad Girls’ Secondary School, located in a wealthy Mansour neighborhood, told the Los Angeles Times in an October 2, 2003 article, “I think my dad will drive me here every day, and watch me walk into the gate.” Although Iraqi police have been deployed, street crime, carjackings, and assaults are still widespread. In Baghdad, many women and girls are fearful of venturing outside.

The insecurity has led world organizations to reduce their involvement in Iraq as well, which has adversely affected Iraqi education. After the deadly bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, the United Nations cut back on its staff, and UNICEF and UNESCO have retreated further, contributing to the delay in the production of new textbooks for schools. The United States must make a long-term commitment to ensure the security of Iraqi streets, homes, and schools.

Second, the United States must improve the fundamental structure of the school system, which means first reforming the process of training, hiring, and paying teachers in order to increase teacher quality and parental involvement in lieu of government influence. Many Iraqi teachers have known no system other than the Baathist ideology they have taught under for decades, so they will need to be trained in modern methods of teaching. Moreover, dismally low teaching salaries will surely have to be raised if talented and committed teachers are to perceive the Iraqi school system as legitimate. Indeed, the interim government recognized that the low pay of teachers was contributing to a widespread bribe system, where students paid teachers for good grades. It raised administrators’ and teachers’ salaries ten to 20 times; some teachers that earned US$5 a month now earn US$60 a month, while an administrator may earn up to US$100.

Similarly, parental involvement could help fill the vacuum left by the purge of Baathist teachers and administrators. Under the old regime, parents were not allowed to play a role in their children’s education for fear that they would confront teachers and, by doing so, question Baathist ideology. In the past, the school administration could have blacklisted the parents of children considered “hostile” or “anti-regime.”

Finally, the United States must aid in the liberation of the Iraqi curriculum, which has not been reviewed or modernized for decades. Iraqi education has been limited to government-imposed education practices, which are heavily focused on memorization, recitation, and regurgitation of information. Hussein considered the Ministry of Education an important branch of government for the Baath party and used education as a means of ensuring the loyalty and obedience of the youth to the government, particularly those born after he came to power in 1979.

The curriculum left no room for students to develop critical and analytical thinking skills or to engage in debate and discussions. The creativity and innovativeness of teachers and students have been stifled. Leslye Arsht, US adviser to Iraq’s Ministry of Education, told the Boston Globe in an October 1, 2003 article, “Twenty years ago, Iraq had one of the best education systems in the region. But teachers have been starved of information for years.”

More Questions to Address

After the United States has helped to improve and strengthen the structure and state of Iraq’s education system, there will be other questions that will need to be addressed. According to a May 1, 2003 op-ed in the New York Sun, a challenge is creating an education system that factors in Iraq’s volatile mix of factions and ethnicities, its subpopulations of Shi’a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turks, and other groups.

Some might argue for a pluralistic, “perhaps federal-style education system” based on local control, rather than one administered from a central education ministry. Others might emphasize the importance of a standardized curriculum and common institution to strengthen a sense of nationhood.