His Excellency Abdel Falah Hassan
Iraqi Minister of Education
Iraq Development Program
Opening Ceremony
Tuesday 28 June 2005

Having attended the opening of the Iraq Development Program summit, I couldn’t help but take in how much is actually going on in Iraq these days within the education scene.

The Iraqi children of today would like to be exposed to more authentic experiences and life skills, know more and therefore want more. They seem to be more eager to bridge the gap between old and new, unlike the totally lost generation of the past. The prince of these times is surely here to awaken the sleeping talents. All we can hope for is that this young generation will somehow be able to move forward, taking with it the values, ethics and strongholds of humanitarian heritage and culture.

The whole educational movement seems to be taking a stronger and more forceful stand and people seem to be responding with more keenness and enthusiasm both locally and globally. An active role is then needed to show a more positive reception and true interest.

Too many dilemmas are facing our educational system; on top of these comes the shortage in school buildings. We have approximately 19,000 schools all over Iraq, with around six million schools pupils in total, but there are only 14,000 available buildings to host them, which gives a clear indication of a shortage of around 5,000. This means that schools work on double and triple shift systems with high pupil density.

If the Ministry of Education starts a plan to build 1,000 schools per year it will take five years to overcome this problem, without taking into consideration the growth in enrolment amounting to 3-4 per cent per year. The estimated budget to cover school rehabilitation and construction for the coming five years is $2.63 billion.

Another dilemma afforded priority by the ministry is the provision of textbooks and other school requirements at the beginning of each school year (September). The Ministry of Education should have a regular plan to ensure the delivery of textbooks to millions of learners.

The need is increasing for printing machines and having printing companies to give authentication to that with clear cut schedules.

Capacity building, in the sense of training – a key aspect – is badly needed, in order to train teachers who have not received any for over two decades, particularly emergency teachers in addition to those who have been newly appointed or reappointed. We have our plans ready and are awaiting implementation.

As the Ministry of Education, we do not limit ourselves to have quantitative expansion without having qualitative progress and do not want to stop at having documents, hopes and projects with no allocated financial support for implementation, as well as the technical minds to make that implementation work.

Finally, please accept our children’s message for you to be well, expressing their wishes to live in peace under the umbrella of education.