Early Childhood in Iraq

04/08/2008

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Helen Keller

Exchange recently surveyed members of the World Forum community to share challenges in early childhood in their countries for a trend report in the upcoming May issue of Exchange. Hassan Baey from Iraq, member of the World Forum's International Working Group on Peace Building with Young Children, offered this contribution...

"My colleagues here in Iraq appreciate very much your efforts in helping children in all over the world and in armed conflict areas like Iraq. We are facing a lot of challenges in our daily life. For example, recently I was exposed with my family to a terrorist act when five gunmen wearing police uniform attacked my home. They injured me as well as my older son, they frightened my daughter, my wife, and my little boy, and they stole the gold and jewels of my wife and the money that we have at home. My children are suffering from this horrible trauma and they have typical signs and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorders. Fortunately we are still alive and our wounds healed, but we may suffer from psychological scars in the future. Besides the terrorists had warned us not to tell the security authorities otherwise they will kill us or kidnap my little boy from his elementary school. So from this real story that we live you can imagine the situation in a relatively secure town, Babylon.

"In armed conflict area like Iraq children are the silent victims. Though their parents put in their mind the high priority of safety, going to school or kindergarten is risky during conflict and post conflict time due to kidnapping from militias or theft gangs. There are also other risks such as the risk of injuries from gunfire during military actions, bombed cars by suicide bombers. That is why parents usually avoid sending their children for education. In addition, parents usually suffer from the economic burden of war and cannot pay for the kindergarten cost, including the transport cost in the climate of high inflation. By this challenge there are about 300,000 Iraqi children out of elementary schools during the year 2006-2007 (according to UNICEF).

"The infrastructure of education system was destroyed due to series of wars and sanction imposed on Iraq since the last three decades. We have a severe shortage of school buildings. You can imagine that three schools include about 2,000 children (6-12 years of age) sharing one building in the same day. Each school has only three hours per day to use the building that is lacking minimum facilities for teaching, places for drawing, playing, etc. The average number of children in primary school classroom is about 50 pupils; this number may reach 70 or even 80 in a 4 x 6 meters room. The situation is the same in the few kindergarten buildings. It is estimated that only 7% of Iraqi children were registered in kindergartens — both the public and the private sectors ones. Iraq is a rapidly growing population and this means that about 60% of the children are below 18 years of age.

"Iraqi teachers are also suffering. They are usually poor and under paid. In a study carried out by my colleagues and me on psychological health status of elementary school teachers in Babylon province, we found that 48% are suffering from chronic anxiety and 23% from depression. They are lacking effective training. We are fighting to support them as NGO with very limited resources. Corruption and very bad ministerial management throw a huge burden on the education in early childhood in Iraq. Child rights are severely violated right now. Children are abused physically in the schools by teachers and their peers as well as at home. And, we have no child psychiatrists in Iraq. Unfortunately, the support to our children (from international agencies like WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF, and other NGOs) is not effective due to conflicts between different sects and militias, insecurity, poor civil society activities, corruption, social factors, and poor ministerial managements."

Registration Deadline for Working Forum on Men Extended

Due to a late surge of registrations, we have pushed back the date on which we will start charging the Late Registration fee for the Working Forum on Men in Early Childhood Education. To see the latest update on the agenda and to register online for this pioneering event, go to the World Forum web site.

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