Iraq: school attendance plummets
This, from Save the Children via IRIN:
- Thousands of students have been forced to stay at home due to escalating violence across the country. Attendance rates for the new school year, which started on 20 September, are a record low, according to the Ministry of Education.
Recently released statistics from the Ministry indicate that only 30 percent of Iraq's 3.5 million students are currently attending classes. This compares to approximately 75 percent of students attending classes the previous year, according to UK-based NGO Save the Children.
"Last year I had nearly 80 students in my class. Today, there are less than 25. Families are keeping their children safe at home, waiting to see how violence will spread, particularly after many schools were targeted countrywide," said Hiba Addel Lattef, a teacher and coordinator at Mansour Primary School in the capital, Baghdad.
"Education [levels are] deteriorating as a result of violence," Lattef added.
...According to Faleh Hassan al-Quraishy, an official in the Ministry of Education, threats from insurgents have forced the government to close around 420 of the country's 16,500 public schools. He added that 310 teachers had been killed and 160 injured over the past year....
Dear Mrs. Cobban,
As you say, interesting days, and more of Q than of A.
1. Does anybody remember the James Baker III's role in the rescheduling of Iraqi debt? I wonder whether it's still relevant to look at the deals between creditors, though I am inclined to say it's no longer now. Loose change compared to the budget deficit..
2. (unrelated)
In these interesting days, I noticed a paper, published in National Interest as well as in Asia Times, regarding the N-Korea bomb, saying in substance that if the bomb was made of plutonium, it proves that 43 just messed it up. the Plutonium was frozen till the renegation of NPT, and would have remained so, if the administration had been intelligent.
Do not hesitate to edit or to erase this message, as it's more of a set of questions than of a comment
Best regards,
Jean