Iraqi children educated under ISIS rule find themselves in limbo

 

The Iraqi government is refusing to recognize the schooling that children received under the rule of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Qayyara, which was liberated from the militants in late August.

One student who was in secondary school when ISIS overran Qayara in 2014 said he passed his exams to advance to ninth grade, but the Iraqi ministry of education does not recognize his course credits.

He said he does not know how the government will deal with his problem, and the plight of many others like him.

“I am back in eighth grade and my peers who had fled the area and went to school elsewhere are now in grades nine or ten. I ask the government to find a solution for our problem,” he said.

Other children in different grades raised similar complaints. 

 

ISIS has introduced its own curriculum in areas under its control, with a focus on Islamic studies.

“Some 3.5 million school-aged Iraqi children are missing out on education,” the UN News Centre reported on Friday. “About one million school-aged children are internally displaced, and 70 per cent of them have lost an entire year of school,” it added.