ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nearly 1.2 million new students will have their first day of school next week, but there is a critical shortage of facilities across the country, an education ministry official said on Saturday.
“School buildings are one of our main problems and biggest challenges. We cannot talk about the progress of the educational process or all the reforms and plans in the Ministry of Education until the appropriate ground is laid - most notably school buildings,” Karim al-Sayyed, spokesperson for the federal education ministry, told Rudaw.
“The population increase and the lack of updates and construction of school buildings between 2012 and 2020 were behind the worsening of this problem,” he said.
According to Sayyed, 12 million students are returning to school this year.
There are some 26,000 public schools across the country, but just 17,000 school buildings, according to Sayyed. This forces some schools to share a building. Overcrowding is also a problem, with some classes consisting of nearly 40 students. Students in several provinces study in buildings made of mud or prefabricated construction.
Sayyed said Iraq has launched a campaign to deal with the crisis.
“The school building campaign aims to eliminate mud and prefabricated buildings and to end the system of double-shifts and overcrowded schools in general. The first province to eliminate double shifts was Muthanna due to its low population, but the crisis is severe in Baghdad, Basra, Nineveh, and Dhi Qar. These provinces need many more schools,” he said.
In 2022, China began building 1,000 new schools across Iraq.
There are also about 4,000 private schools in the country.
The school year is beginning early this year.
“According to a cabinet decision, the school year will begin on September 22,” Sayyed said.
The reason for the early start is “to gain time, end administrative arrangements, distribute curricula, and set exam schedules to take advantage of the time.”
Last year, the school year started in October.
Maad Fayyadh contributed to this report
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