Report: Baghdad education breaking down

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Sectarian violence is crippling Baghdad's educational system, according to teachers, administrators and parents cited in a new report.

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a British-based non-profit that provides training and practical assistance to local journalists in conflict zones, and distributes their articles, this week circulated a series of assessments of Iraq’s schools, colleges and universities.

The news is almost all bad, although there are some bright spots, principally in the Kurdish north where the security situation is better and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has meant that Kurds and Turkomen can at last get public education about their ethnic history and in their native tongue.

But elsewhere the educational situation is overwhelmingly bleak, something that bodes very ill for the future. In the Palestinian Territories and the South African townships during the struggle against apartheid, the breakdown of educational institutions helped fuel the rise of violent militias and street gangs.

The situation is especially bad in Baghdad, the institute’s reporting shows. “Kidnappings of middle-class and wealthy students are common, and many teachers have been killed. Families escort their children to school and sometimes stay with them until the end of the day so they can take them home safely,” reads one report about the capital’s school system.

Security is worst in the mixed neighborhoods and a little better in the ethnically monolithic parts of town.

“The chaos caused by violent attacks and kidnappings is felt at nearly every level, with students misbehaving and missing class, and teachers refusing to come to work. Approximately 600 teachers were murdered across Iraq in the 2006-2007 academic year, according to the ministry of education,” the report says.