The
current security crisis has increased the ethnosectarian tensions within Iraq.
Public discourse and news reports are full of remarks about the “war” between
Sunnis and Shiites and the tensions between Arabs and Kurds. One possible way
to overcome these divisions is through Iraq’s education system. Many both
inside and out of Iraq have talked about the need to reform Iraq’s schools. The textbooks and curriculum are out of date,
there are questions about the skills that are taught, etc. Not only that but a
reformed curriculum can show the shared experiences of all Iraqis, and provide
a basis for national reconciliation. To discuss how the country’s schools should be changed is Christine van den Toorn who taught at the American University of Iraq, Sulaymaniya
(AUIS) 2009-2013.
She now runs The Primary Source (www.theprimarysourceiraq.com), a research
services and consulting company, with her former students. She can be followed
on Twitter @vandentoorn.
Reforming Iraq's school could not only provide a better education but a sense of shared identity and struggle amongst Iraqis argues Christine Van Den Toorn (Al Shorfa)
1. The Iraqi
government and international organizations have pointed out that Iraq’s
curriculum needs to be overhauled. What do many Iraqi children learn today,
what is missing, and what needs to be done about it?
In
terms of curriculum, the "what" students are learning, I can speak
mainly about the Iraqi history textbooks now being used in schools. There are
two main issues: one is that there is a great deal missing, and the other is
how texts present the history that is included.
The
modern history textbook is framed as a story of repression and victimhood,
moving from the "Turkish occupation" to the "British
occupation." While most historians can agree that outside powers played a
role in the fate of Iraq and the greater Middle East, local agency should not
be ignored, especially in teaching history locally. Neither period is evaluated
comprehensively, and important parts of Iraq's history – social and political
movements of the monarchy, and an analysis of various economic and agricultural
“reform” projects, for example – are left out.
Most
problematic is that history stops in 1963 in Iraqi textbooks with the first,
albeit unsuccessful in the long term, Baathist coup that ousted the first
leader of the Iraqi republic, Abd al Karim Qassim. Missing is the rule of the
'Arif brothers from 1963 to 1968, the second, and this time successful,
Baathist coup which installed Hassan al Bakr as leader of Iraq until 1979 when
Saddam Hussein officially took over as head of the Revolutionary Command
Council. There is nothing on the Iran-Iraq War, the 1991 invasion of Kuwait and
subsequent sanctions in the 1990s.
This
means that students do not learn about shared suffering of all Iraqis – Sunni,
Shi'i, Arab, Kurd, Yezidi, Christian – under Saddam's regime. Suspicions,
hatred and mistrust based on misinformation, stereotypes and assumptions go
uncorrected.
For
example, during Saddam's regime, students in Iraq proper were told that the
Kurds were trying to destroy the state and were a backward people inferior to
Arabs. They were shielded from much of the realities of Arabization, the Anfal
campaign and the continuous violent repression against the Kurdish people. A
historically accurate treatment of these atrocities remains missing from Iraqi
public school textbooks.
Likewise,
some Kurds are left to think that there was general support for the Saddam
Hussein regime and the Baath party outside of the Kurdish areas. "He
couldn't have stayed in power without their support" claim many Kurds,
"their" referring to Arabs, as they don't know or will not
acknowledge that "support" was, while still condemnable, in some
cases nothing more than signing a sheet of paper to save the lives of family
members. Nor was "support" for Saddam's regime limited to the
"Arabs." In addition, some Kurdish youth are not aware of the brutal
suppression of the 1991 uprising in the south, events that mirror their own
history. They do not learn of the fear, paranoia, and torture pervasive in Iraq,
again, consistent with their own experience.
Last,
Iraqi Arabs themselves do not learn about important issues like the brutality
of Saddam's regime; the time when Sunni and Shi'i was not a defining,
antagonistic identity; or the suffering under sanctions and the Iran Iraq War.
Considering the current political environment, many assume that all Sunnis were
pro-Saddam Baathists and that they were Saddam's only loyalists, which supports
the current sectarian narrative of Iraq and Iraqi history, denying that reality
that there were many Shi'i in power and that power was based on blind loyalty
and submission not just sect.
It
is important that various ethno-sectarian groups of Iraqis understand and
acknowledge each other's history to improve relations, to understand they have
something in common in the past other than enmity.
The
Baath Party and Saddam Hussein's regime need to be carefully examined, so youth
understand how they were able to stay in power, and exactly how destructive the
regimes were to Iraq's economy, society and politics.
The
humanities curriculum in Iraqi high schools and universities should be
overhauled to include more comprehensive courses in Iraqi, Middle East and
World history as well as in political science, international relations, government
and philosophy.
2. What kinds of
skills do Iraqis learn in primary and high school, and does that prepare them
for going on to college?
Just
like important lessons in history, also missing from the curriculum is
development of academic skills. Most students enter (and even leave) university
without having read multiple texts, written original essays or conducted
research. So it’s not just what is being taught in Iraq that is a problem, but
how it is taught. Here are a few examples:
When
I ask my students whether they had to write anything, or turn in essays in
high-school, most say no. Those who respond yes say they just found a piece on the
internet on the subject at hand – usually on Wikipedia – "copy
pasted" it onto a word document, printed it out and handed it in.
"All you have to do is find it and sometimes read it," they say.
Nor
are they required to read different books, academic articles, and primary
sources – which are always a source of much wonder and amazement (and pain) in
history classes at AUIS. Readings in classes are limited to the assigned
textbook, and a few questions at the end of each chapter that rarely get to the
heart of the historical matter – the causes and effects.
On
tests, instead of having short answers and essays requiring students to
understand the how and why, students are required to simply memorize and
regurgitate as accurately as possible handouts from the teacher or professor.
To prepare, they simply copy the text over and over, saying it out loud and in
their heads.
Another
huge gap is with research. None of my students had ever conducted actual
research and really understood what "research" meant. They would use
random online sites including Wikipedia for citations, hearsay and
generalities. Most did not understand what constituted "evidence" for
an "argument" or "thesis."
For example, a student might write that the Ottoman Empire was unjust
because "the people were treated unfairly" and "there was
discrimination." These lines would be quoted from texts and presented as
evidence, when they needed examples of that discrimination from academic texts.
A bigger issue was providing analysis to link that evidence to the thesis
statement.
Research
assignments teach students that different people, like academics, have
different perspectives. They also teach important history lessons. One of the
most popular research topics over the years was "How did the Baath party
stay in power?" This required students to read texts and primary sources
on the party and its strategies, learning that it wasn't because of love and
blind support the Baath stayed in power but usually fear, intimidation,
violence, propaganda and indoctrination. The second most selected topic was
"What were the main causes of the Iran Iraq War?" Students would all
say at the start, "that's easy it was between the Sunni and Shi'i." I
would ask, OK what is your evidence and the would say, "Because Sunni and
Shi'i have always hated each other and are always fighting." While
sectarian identity plays a role here, only after research did students realize
that there is more to the story, like the regional power struggle between Iran
and Iraq (Saddam and Khomenei after the ‘79 revolution) and access to, control
of the Shatt al Arab.
Last,
pedagogy is outdated, and teachers and professors hold lecture-based classes
with little room for discussion, debate and analysis – for students to share
opinions (to analyze texts) and learn to respond to perspectives different than
their own.
I
want to emphasize here that my point here is not that Iraqi students do not
have the ability do these things, it’s that they haven’t been taught. These
skills do not come naturally, rather they must be taught starting at the
elementary and secondary level. At AUIS students learn pick them up – analysis
in reading and discussions, writing and research – after a year or two of
courses that emphasize them. But they really need to start earlier, and these
skills are not used in any sort of widespread manner in public schools and
universities.
I
also want to note that there are of course exceptions to the above statements –
no doubt there are wonderful instructors, researchers, professors around Iraq
that are teaching their subjects and academic skills. My guess though is that
they are the exception rather than the rule at this point.
Fixing
this will take nothing less than a total overhaul of curriculum and pedagogy,
involving rewriting textbooks and intensive teacher and administrator training
in academic skill building to ensure implementation. There must be oversight,
accountability and benchmarks.
3. When do you think
these problems with Iraq’s school started?
[It is] important to keep in mind is that the
decline of the education system did not start in 2003, rather it began over
thirty years ago during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and then took a serious
dip during sanctions in the 1990s when little to no academic research and texts
were coming into Iraq. Harith Hassan, a DC based Iraqi academic who taught
political science at Baghdad University in the late 90s and early 2000s,
mentioned to me once that textbooks he was using were from the 70s. So while
during the 1970s, despite the politicization under the Baath, and earlier there
was major educational reform, by 2003 most of those initiatives were outdated
to say the least.
On top of the out of date materials, there is also
a huge lack of human resources. Hundreds of teachers and professors were
killed, have quit their work or have left Iraq over the past eleven years due
to threats, attacks and assassinations. This was not the first exodus though,
before 2003 intellectuals who did not bow to or join the Baath Party were targeted
and sent into "early retirement" or to prison. Many escaped and still
live in exile.
4. Has the Education
and Higher Education Ministries done anything to fix the textbooks, etc. in the
country?
As
far as I know, there was a curriculum committee in the early years after
the invasion, and due to an inability to agree on how to teach about the
Baathist era and Saddam, they left it out of books. This seems fairly
reasonable considering the inability of Iraqi politicians to agree on just
about anything today.
There
have been initiatives over the years to reform curriculum but here
implementation is a real problem. For example Dr. Alaa Maaki, an advocate for
education reform in Iraq who has been both chair and vice-chair of the
education committee in the Iraqi Parliament (he was a member of the Iraq
Islamic Party and is now a close ally of Ayad Allawi's party, and was number 2
on the Wataniya list in recent elections) partnered with the United States Institute
of Peace (USIP) to design a civic and human rights curriculum for public
schools. They also trained teachers and administrators around Iraq. However the
curriculum – which took over a year to design – has yet to be implemented in
the Iraqi education system.
So
it's not only agreeing on a curriculum, but also the actual implementation that
is a serious issues facing education reform.
The
Kurdistan Regional Government has in fact overhauled education. But the reports
of the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education do not reflect
the reality of the situation. It is true that education reform takes time so we
cannot expect things to be perfect now. Education was severely lacking in the
Kurdistan Region in the 1980s and 90s, many Kurds did not attend school due to
war and displacement. That said the way the Kurds are reforming the education
should be improved and revised. A new European style curriculum is used, and
thousands of teachers have been hired. But it is near to impossible to think
that there has been time to properly train these teachers in progressive
pedagogy and basics of instruction. The rule seems to be quantity over quality.
For example, they have new English lesson books, like in Iraq proper, but very
few teachers here are actually know English well enough to teach the subject.
While many schools have been built and renovated, hundreds of others lie in a
total state of disrepair.
5. What is the
overall state of Iraq’s higher education? Are the universities any better than
the primary and high schools and are there enough of them to meet Iraq’s needs?
I'd
say the higher education is worse off than the secondary and primary schools
due to a the exodus of professors over the decades, and lack of research.
Evidence for this is also that the Iraqi scholarship programs sending students
to the U.S. are only for graduate school, and with the explicit purpose of
filling the gap in university professors.
University
students prepare for exams by memorizing their professors’ handouts or texts,
copying them over time after time and repeating them over and over in their
heads. I have rarely, if ever, heard of students writing research papers even
at the university level.
Another
issue now is corruption in the system regarding awarding degrees. Ministry of
Higher Education officials and students report that degrees - BA, MA and PhD -
can be bought or awarded through fear and intimidation. These degrees are in
high demand because Iraqi law requires that ministers and high-level officials
hold them, and the men and women seeking these positions do not have. The
government has also created a remedial test for those who did not graduate
high-school, or do not pass their exams to take, essentially further dumbing
down the system. There is widespread cheating at all levels of education, which
is seen as "helping friends."
6. You’ve written
that Iraq’s universities represent both Iraq’s divisions and a hope for a
better future. At the American University of Iraq, Sulaymaniya (AUIS) what
kinds of splits did you see within the student body?
The
ethno-sectarian divisions that exist in Iraq exist at AUIS. In general Kurds
hang out with Kurds and Arabs with Arabs. Sunni students hang out in the same
groups, as do Shi'i.
Among
Arabs and Kurds there is a "we don't like because they don't like us"
attitude. Students from Baghdad and other areas in Iraq proper say that the
Kurds do not welcome them, exclude them and don't want them there. To an extent
they are right - some, though not all, Kurds still associate Arabs with Saddam
and the Baath Party and would rather if Arabs were not living the Kurdistan
Region or at the very least do not want to befriend them. Kurds, on the other
hand, say the Arab students think they are better than them, and look down on
Kurdish students. What is at the root of this is hard to determine; it's like
figuring out which came first, the chicken or the egg.
The
Iraqi Arab students are also mostly divided between Sunni and Shi'i. Not only
have they grown up in an Iraq of heightened sectarian identity, but most of
them hail from elite families. The division between them reflects the animosity
and divides between Iraq's political parties, not really pure sectarianism.
This
plays out in ways on campus - on the anniversary of the day Baghdad fell, for
example, Sunni students dressed in black and Shi'i students from Najaf handed
out candy. Kurdish students were also upset because they claimed the black
outfits were for mourning Saddam's fall, and therefore showing respect for the
past dictator. There were words exchanged in person and on Facebook, but no
fighting. The various reactions to this day show the competing narratives of
Baath Party rule and Iraq since its fall. Students must have an opportunity to
study and discuss the past, including the years since to invasion, to try to
reconcile some of the massive divide and differences of their experiences.
Some
of these divisions are understandable considering the violent history Kurds
under the Saddam regime, and the past ten years of conflict between sectarian
groups in Iraq. And one can argue that with time things will improve - but it's
not just time but also education and stable spaces and shared experiences.
There
are also practical divisions like language. After 1991, Arabic instruction
stopped in the Kurdistan Region, and Kurdish is not taught in Iraqi schools.
Even though at AUIS both Kurds and Arabs speak English, they prefer to speak in
their own language outside of class. Some Kurds still associate Arabic with the
Saddam regime, though most young people are starting to see it as a tool for
advancement as many companies require some Arabic language skills. Similarly,
many students from Baghdad learn Kurdish, to get by in town, to show respect
for the local culture and because many international oil companies in the KRG
require Kurdish.
Then
there divides that you might find everywhere in the world: rural vs. urban
(grew up in a village vs. in Sulaimani), liberal vs. conservative, and wealthy
vs. poor. I always called the students from Ranya a “posse” because they were
rarely apart, and there are Sulaimani cliques.
7. On the positive
side in what ways do you think a rigorous and challenging college education can
transform Iraqi society?
Education
is key to rebuilding Iraqi society in many different ways.
First,
in terms of reconciliation, at AUIS there are many exceptions to the
ethno-sectarian divides mentioned in the last question. This is because the
University provides a stable environment where students share a language
(English) and engage not only in academics but also extracurricular
activities.
In
Middle East History classes, for example looking at the shared suffering and
struggle against Saddam’s regime can bridge gaps between Iraqi Kurdish and Arab
students. In Debate Society, students learn to use evidence and form convincing
arguments and refutations. The pain and suffering of the engineering major has
bridged ethnic divides, “we don’t care about that stuff anymore...we are too
busy” said one Kurdish student who “didn’t want to be friends with Arabs” only
a couple of years ago.
While
in the dorms students usually share rooms with people from their hometown or
ethno-sectarian group, there are exceptions. A Kurdish, Turkmen girl from Erbil
lives with her best friend, an Arab from Baghdad. A Yezidi student from Sinjar
has become good friends with his roommates from Diyala and Anbar. A student
from Bashiqa, near Mosul, also Yezidi, went to visit his close friend in Najaf
who hails from one of the most prominent religious families there a couple
years back. Students from Baghdad go on weekend trips with the friends and
classmates in Ranya, and vice versa.
There are also several students from Baghdad whose friends cross all the
divides – Sunni, Shi’i and Kurdish. Students with Sunni and Shi'i parents, and
Kurds who grew up in Baghdad also hang out in mixed groups. One student from
Ranya who considers Arabs the same as Kurds, and calls them his brothers, and
wrote a letter of tolerance and compassion during one period of ethnic tension
at the school when it was proposed to remove the "S" – for Sulaimani,
the Kurdish city where the University is located – from the name, leaving on
“Iraq.” The women’s basketball and soccer teams have players from all over the
Kurdistan Region and Iraq, and Kurds, Arabs (Sunni and Shi’i) and Christians
form friendships through their experiences as teammates.
While not all become close friends, important is that
they can study and work together after a couple years, and that most at the
very least move beyond past suspicions, mistrust, and hatred.
There
are also lessons to be learned beyond ethno-sectarian reconciliation. We all
hear people talking about the importance of justice, institutions and power
sharing to rebuild Iraq. But I’d say you need people, educated Iraqis, to
implement and build these programs and institutions.
For
example, in the post invasion years, many say that a main problem is that
political personalities and parties are unable to power share (though this has
really been a problem of Iraqi politics for decades). Parties in power and the
opposition won’t compromise – it is all or nothing, right or wrong – nor do
they negotiate, look for moderate reforms.
While
some of this discord has to do with the personal political history of these
particular players, some might at the very least be prevented in future
generations by teaching history and politics as well as the academic skills
mentioned above which enable them to negotiate, compromise and debate. In
conversations I’ve had with students at AUIS, all will mention that AUIS not
only taught them things about history and politics they did not know, but also
how to think, analyze and consider different perspectives.
One
example regarding current perception of Saddam and dictatorship I think shows
why history and political science courses and academic skill-building are so
important: It is all too common to hear – especially from those who have grown
up in extremely violent, sectarian areas – express support or nostalgia for
Saddam Hussein era or the security of pre-2003 Iraq. They see dictatorship as
stable and secure, and democracy as ineffective, unstable and violent. So they
think the chaos they see today is democracy. A lack of knowledge about the
realities of the Saddam regime and a lack of courses in government and political
science deny them the ability to fully understand and evaluate different types
of government and political transitions. While there was no Al Qaeda under
Saddam, one could argue that he terrorized his own people, and that no one was
really "safe" under his regime, loyal family and friends were also
executed. The more years that pass, the fewer young people will have memory of
his rule.
8. Can foreign
exchange programs for Iraqi college students help with the process of reform
and do many such opportunities exist today?
Graduates
of exchange programs also can make important contributions to education and
political, societal reform in Iraq. While there are several Iraqi and U.S.
government exchange program, we need to be more to make a real impact.
The Iraqi government and the KRG
have three scholarship programs that send students to the U.S. for graduate
school, with the goal of filling the major gap among university professors: one
from each Ministry of Higher Education (Erbil and Baghdad) and then the third
run out of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s office, the “Higher Committee for Educational Development” or HCED, also known
as “Maliki’s scholarship.” However it was
founded and is actually run by Iraqi-American academic Zuhair al Jezairy. There
are no programs currently for undergraduates.
The HCED is by far the most
legitimate and successful of all three, because of its merit based application
system and strong academic and English preparation program. The ministry
programs, on the other hand, are in need of serious reform and oversight as
they are unfortunately plagued with corruption, selecting students based on wasta rather than on merit, which means
that many students who are sent abroad do not succeed in their studies.
There have not been enough
graduates of these MA and PhD programs in the US to yet evaluate their impact – but these students
will, like AUIS grads, be exceptions to the rule in their universities and
might not be enough to change the tides of the Iraqi education system.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad offers
advice studying in the States through its global Education USA program, and
holds annual graduate school fairs around Iraq. There are also several
scholarship and exchange programs run by the State Department: Fulbright (which
is for both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as teachers and
professors) and then three summer exchanges, the Iraq Youth Leadership Program
(IYLEP), Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), and the Study of U.S.
Institutes (SUSI). From student feedback, MEPI is by far the superior,
substantive program with students taking classes at Georgetown University and
visiting Capitol Hill. There are several other State Department funded programs
run by groups like IREX, such as the Iraqi University linkages program that
trains administrators and builds much needed career services centers.
These exchanges produce visible
changes in students’ outlook and also provide them opportunities to
advance. For example, when they return, while they could be stronger, some
alumni networks promote academic and professional exchange – two graduates last
year organized a debate about ‘Is oil a blessing or a curse’ between their two
universities. One of those same graduates has used his connections from AUIS and
MEPI to plan a business that plans and implements corporate social
responsibility projects for oil companies operating in the country. In
addition, among the community youth groups that have popped up in Baghdad over
the past few years – encouraging people to read or pick up trash – are graduates of such
exchanges.
SOURCES
Van Den Toorn, Christine, “Reconciliation through Education
in Iraq,” The New Middle East, 5/23/14
