Siovana el-Nashir - Final Project Booklet

Overview of Iraqi education during Saddam’s regime
At its peak, Iraq’s educational system was viewed by other Middle East countries as a
model to emulate due to its success in:
• Raising literacy rates under the “National Campaign for the Eradication of
Illiteracy”;
• Providing unprecedented social services;
• Increasing school enrollment and attendance;
• Keeping drop-out rates and costs down;
• Maintaining female enrollment on par with males; and
• Delivering a quality education in accord with both academic and religious
standards.
Delivering Iraq’s Public School Education
Under Saddam, Iraq’s educational system was highly structured and as well as
extremely nationalistic — the ideal platform to mold young minds. For example,
education was a centralized system under the Ministry of Education (MoE); there were
no school boards or local governing entities. Structured curricula and teacher-centered
instructional practices were void of teacher and school administration input. The
curriculum completely reflected the goals of Ba’athist beliefs and was strict, politicized,
patriotic, and militaristic with no connectivity between educational needs and the needs
of the workforce.
Teachers were essentially
charged with teaching
Ba’athist ideology in
order to indoctrinate young loyalists. Under the teachers’
direction, love of country and of Saddam was a constant in
the classroom. Students were required to sing, recite and
chant proclamations such as “Long live the heroic Ba’ath
Party!” Plus, many teachers were Ba’athist loyalists and
became the “eyes of the party,” scrutinizing their peers
and ensuring Saddam’s agenda was followed. Students
Additionally, Saddam’s image and pictures of soldiers
saturated textbooks; Iraq’s nationalism and bias
toward Ba’athist ideology were incorporated into every
subject area. Library books and computers were scarce.
Textbooks were the main source of curriculum delivery
and were favored for their portability (ability to reinforce
nationalism in the home).
learned via rote memorization (without understanding) and recitation.
Differentiated instruction did not exist and critical thinking, discussion,
creativity, and debating were not encouraged. Students and teachers had
limited interactions.
Saddam, a Sunni, required that only the Sunni interpretation of the Quran
be taught, much to the chagrin of Shiite students and parents. Parents
adopted a hands-off approach to their children’s education for fear of riling
teachers and school administrators and being blacklisted as unpatriotic.
The MoE, in collaboration with Iraq’s universities, produced teacher
training videos, pamphlets, and television programs designed not only to
enhance teachers’ knowledge and skills within their specific subjects but
also to accurately reflect Iraq’s views on education. Specially:
1) The education reform process must be based on objective study and evaluation
of the current situation, and a precise diagnosis of the problems of the current
system and the obstacles facing reform and rebuilding.
2) In order to guarantee the participation of all sectors of Iraqi society in the reform
process, the responsibility of reforming the education system must extend beyond
the MoE and its institutions.
3) All decisions concerning reform of the curriculum must be strictly Iraqi and in
line with Iraqi values and culture.
USAID supports curriculum reforms primarily favoring math and science over social
studies and other subjects that might cause cultural conflict.
With the assistance of US and international aid
groups, some curriculum changes were immediately
implemented while others remained intact. For
instance, new textbooks were printed and distributed
without Saddam’s image. Also omitted were
references to the Ba’athist ideology and politics as
well as both Saddam’s and George Bush’s names.
Militaristic content was replaced with forward-thinking,
democratic language that espoused peace, human
rights, and love of country and community while
“un-demonizing” the US. Civics books mention Iraq’s
turbulent history but in a carefully-worded and limited capacity.
Baccalaureate exams are still an important benchmark and are conducted at the end of
the 6th year, and at the end of the 9th and 12th years. Religion continues to be taught
to both Muslims and Christians separately; however, Shiite students are taught by Shiite
teachers and Sunni children by Sunni teachers.
Despite these changes to the curriculum, there still exist some challenges:
• Not all of the country’s schools have received the new textbooks. Old materials
(with Saddam’s image torn out) are being used, which creates problems in
presenting updated material.
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