Iraqi Schools Back in Session!!!

[pojo]

Deprived Iraqi schools start new year

MSN

Iraqi schools start new year
The new school year is starting in Iraq -- and while many classrooms are still waiting for supplies, there’s something much bigger missing: the imprint of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi students attend classes on the first day of school in Baghdad on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 1 — The classrooms at Baghdad's al-Waqidi school are dirty and the books have yet to arrive. But excited pupils filled the playground on Wednesday as Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein school year officially began.

SCHOOLS ACROSS IRAQ are in varying states of disrepair. Locals, aid agencies and the U.S.-led occupiers have restored electricity and water to many, fixed furniture, and reprinted books to purge all mentions of Saddam.

But supplies have yet to reach schools and many were not ready to welcome pupils.

At those that were, old lessons had to be unlearned, with some pupils accidentally praising Saddam — a ritual drummed into them until Saddam's overthrow in April.

Teachers complained about the lack of text books, shortages of pens and pencils, broken furniture and unswept classrooms.

"People said these are new days, you will get new classrooms, new books, but that hasn't happened," said Sana Abd al-Rahman, a teacher at al-Waqidi primary school. "It's just gone from bad to worse."

Undeterred, pupils seemed happy to be back at school. Girls chatted to friends, boys ran across desktops in one of eight small and dingy classrooms. About 650 students attend al-Waqidi — half of them in the morning, half in the afternoon.

"I'm so happy we are going back to school," said 12-year-old Dalal Fouad, smartly dressed in the blue dress and white shirt uniform. "Our study is our future."

LEARNING NEW WAYS
Under Saddam, pupils had to chant "Long Live our Leader Saddam" each time they stood up in class, and "Long Live the Brave Baath" when they sat back down.

But the old routine was effective, and many mouths at al-Waqidi accidentally let the old words slip out.

"Slowly, slowly, things will change," one teacher said. "It's normal, they are not used to these new things yet."

Teachers said the few textbooks they did have still included pictures of the former president, and they were waiting for the promised Saddam-free books to arrive.

At the First Secondary School for Excellence in the northern city of Mosul, workers were still laying cement outside the front door and many of the classrooms had yet to be repainted. Teachers said lessons would not restart until Saturday.

The more eager pupils, and parents, came all the same.

Pupil Mohammed Ismail said he was looking forward to getting textbooks purged of Saddam.

"Every single textbook had a picture of Saddam, and many of them used large chunks of his novels as material for exercises," he said.

The U.S.-led authority in Iraq has raised salaries. Teachers said the basic wage had gone up from about $5 a month to $30, rising to about $90 for senior staff.

"The salaries are a good thing," said Hana Hassan, who works at the Dafaf al-Nil school in west Baghdad. "But I haven't seen any changes yet, apart from the salaries. Lots of students haven't come back, they are scared."

2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

[David]

Good for them.