Iraq is known by the name of Mesopotamia .. It is the cradle of human civilization. Where the Sumarian, Alkadiene, Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations were emerged and had great importance in old times. During the early period of Islam, the Arabic Islamic civilization prevailed and flourished, and during the Abbassid Caliphate Baghdad remained the center of science and education in the course of centuries sought by students of knowledge.

In recent ages Iraq witnessed a comprehensive rise in life aspects, some are educational method which raised the civilized structure operation in the society. The constitution of the Republic of Iraq states that the government guarantees the right of charge-free education in all its stages elementary, secondary and university to all citizens, by having elementary education compulsory through a law enacted to this effect in 1976. A comprehensive, national campaign for eradicating illiteracy was executed and obvious progress in quality and quantity were achieved in educational stages and in all its aspects. Also, Iraq achieved noticeable progress in its educational relations with other Arab and Foreign countries, also with Arab Regional and International Organization. This was clear in meeting the needs of Arab countries for teachers, books and educational implements, accepting students in its schools and institutions and opening Iraqi schools abroad to grant education opportunity to Arabs living in foreign countries. Also, the coordination with UNESCO, UNICEF, International Educational Bureau, Arab Organization for Science, Culture and Education and Islamic Organization for Science, Culture and Education.

Iraq has participated in financially supporting these organizations by paying its obligations in advance and its participation in covering deficiencies, specially with UNESCO, its clear participation in supporting the Regional Center for Educational Planning and its Administration in Arab countries. But since 1990 Iraq faced an unjust imposed embargo and aggression was starting from 1991. The embargo and the war affected the developing method in the country including education aspect which was negatively affected in quality and quantity, directly and indirectly. Negative signs of the embargo led to delay Iraq’s order in the Human Development Order issued by UN Development Programmed from 54 in 1990 to 126 in 1997. These registration figures in its various stages of education represents one of the main indicators in the grading of different countries in the Human Development Order.

This recent report sheds the light on the effects of the embargo on education in the center/south governorates and in the main aspects in the educational method of Iraq.

The imposed embargo on the country added additional burdens on educational method which was harmed by the aggressive war that led to the fundamental destruction of this method, among other things the destruction of school buildings, equipments, aids and educational laboratories, furniture, registry and school books, school library books and other related educational necessities. Losses emerged from this destruction numbered to (650) million USD.

The unjust embargo and since it was imposed in 1990 and till now caused to aggravate educational method problems due to the severe decreasing in school buildings, its maintenance to receive students, lack in the supply of educational materials such as desks, books, stationary, educational aids, equipments and laboratories, the reduction in the necessary required teaching environment in order to keep students at schools and to maintain the teaching standard to prevent students to dropout from schools. The severe decrease in government funding on education due to the unfair embargo resulted in obvious decline in the educational method. While financial allocation for this method was 4.6% in 1989, it was decreased to 3.2% in 1993.

Recent survey to state the minimum needs of educational materials for general education pointed out that (144) million USD are needed for this purpose. The estimation of specialized UN agencies were (130) million USD, this issue was also referred by the United Nation General Assembly report (Purchasing and Distribution Plan) No. S/9965/678 concerning MOU.

Following are some examples on the negative effects of the embargo on the quantitative educational method.

In relation to school buildings

The effects of the unjust embargo in relation to school books are represented in the following facts:

A: Field study results conducted in 1993 showed that there are (8613) school buildings out of (10334) for general educational stages. 83.3% needs renovations and maintenance one way or another because they have students beyond their capacity, severe decrease in funding and scarcity in constructive materials hinders its rehabilitation mounting to 8 million USD.

B: Cessation of building schools since 1991. School plan for 1991/1992 through 1995/1996, were not implemented, they indicated the need for (3973) buildings, this led to the accumulation in the need for school buildings year after year to face natural expansion in education in all its stages, and to discontinue double, triple school timetable periods at the same school, replacing buildings that are derelict. The need for buildings till 1989 reached to (5000) building with construction cost of (300) million USD. Due to the difficulty to implement this, the Ministry stated the required buildings to face severe congestion by (639) building and (209) studying wings, cost of construction is (43) million USD.

1- Cost to renovate (1753) school buildings is (52,590.000) million USD, the cost to renovate one building is (30) thousand USD in accordance with 1989 costs.

2- Cost to renovate (8613) building, which is the total required number for all governorates excluding self-ruled governorates is (258,390.000) million USD.

Cost:

1- Total cost to solve severe congestions reached to (378,800.000) million USD, depending on 1989 construction costs, that 400,000 USD is needed to build primary schools, 800,000 to build secondary schools and 200,000 USD to build school wings.

2- Total cost for (5000) building for all governorates excluding self-ruled governorates is 2,672,000.000 billion USD.

C: The cessation in the construction of school buildings and its maintenance caused in the over crowded of these schools and led them to have double, triple school timetable alternately with other schools in the same building. There are schools that have (4500) students, while its capacity is (700) students. Also, number of students in the class have increase to 35 students.

The unjust embargo have resulted a severe shortages in the supply of educational materials such as:

- Severe shortage in school desks due to the closing of productive factories specialized in school furniture. The required number is 2 million school desks, in addition to 300 thousands desk yearly.

- Severe shortage in the required paper supply to print school books for all stages and to distribute them among students in order not to use old books. The need is estimated to 20,000 tons of paper roll and sheets and 582 tons for ronyo paper, in addition the supply of other materials for printing equipment and stationeries.

- Severe shortage in the supply of blackboards, the need for 500,000 is required, also the need for school furniture, communication equipments and air-conditioning.

- Severe shortage in training materials for vocational education and vocational education department at secondary schools.

- Shortages in basic educational materials such as supplying (28972) micro calculators, , (2800) physics laboratories, (2800) chemistry laboratories, (2800) biology laboratories, (4000) general scientific laboratories, printing ink and raw materials to produce educational materials.

- Shortage in teachers training equipment and physical and sport training equipments in all schools.

The embargo had an obvious negative effect in the acceptance of different population groups (6-11), (12-14) and (15-17) years at schools. Statistics for 1996/1997 shows the following:

- Net entrance for elementary education (6-11) years reached 91.7% of the population for this age group instead of 98%. Entrance for (12-14) years for this age group reached 39.2% and for (15-17) years is 16.8%.

- Total consensus for the population for age group 6-23 years in receiving education decreased from 55.3% in 1987 and 55.7% in 1990 and reached to 43.1% in 1993 and 42.5% in 1995. This represents a severe decrease in this respect.

Neither elementary nor secondary education have witnessed significant growth in relation to the population growth during the years of the embargo as it was the case before. Elementary education faced a reduction in registry.

While numbers of those who registered during 1989/1990 were (2,064,680) million student both sexes for urban areas, their number reached in 1993/1994 (2,008,297) million students.

The period from 1993/1994 through 1996/1997 witnessed limited growth that not in balance with yearly population growth, and do not achieve the aim of elementary compulsory education.

Concerning rural areas it witnessed between the period from 1989/1990 a slight growth till 1993. Number of registered students for the year 1993/1997 was reduced, after it was 893.942 it became 832.732 which indicates a reduced enrolling number in the compulsory education.

- Number of children, pupils and students registered in all educational stages for 1996/1997 reached to (4,186.235) million, while educational plan for 1994/1995 through 2005/2006 aimed that number of registered students would be (5,239,199) million, i.e.: with a difference of (1,042.964) million for the same year (1996/1997).

The unjust embargo had a serious effect on school and educational environment, the overcrowded schools with students, increased problems of school building maintenance and severe shortage in the basic educational materials, also the effect of malnutrition due to lack of diet and balanced diet resulted in the reduction of educational qualification programme. Following are some main problems of the educational development quality due to the embargo:

- 823189 students of both sexes from both elementary and secondary stages left school for the period 1991 through 1996/1997. 48432 from elementary stage and 338868 from secondary stage, while total number for those who dropped-out from 1984/1985 through 1989/1990 was 567524, 374591 from elementary stage and 192933 from secondary stage.

- Rate of success was reduced in all school stages. Secondary stage success rate was reduced from 62.1% and high school 76.2% in 1988/1989 to 59% and 72% respectively in 1995/1996, while education development Planning for 1994/1995 through 2005/2006 aimed at increasing successful rate sand decreasing failure rates to reach to 40% for elementary stage and 65.4% for boys and 73.9% for girls in secondary stage in 1996/1997 and 62.2% for boys in the scientific section and 59.6% for boys in the Art section and 60.7% for girls in Art section in 1996/1997.

- Number of students in one class have increased due to discontinue in building maintenance and increase in the registry of students in educational stages. This resulted in the over crowded in the class specially in urban area.

Negative effect of the embargo on child rights which were encompassed in articles 28 and 29 of the International Agreement on Child Rights issued by the United Nation General Assembly No. 3 for 1994. Article 38 indicated that the child has the right to receive education on basis of equal opportunity and making elementary education compulsory and available to all and developing methods of secondary school, Article 29 indicated that educating children should be directed to develop their personality, hobbies and physical and mental abilities to the utmost. Therefore, the severe shortage in the educational requirements such as school books, desks, educational techniques, school books library, children toys, stationeries and transportation all these did not provide the appropriate opportunities for all children to join schools and remain until the end of the educational stage without dropping out, this contradicts the international declaration nature concerning education for all and child rights agreement referred to and aims of mid decayed issued by UNICEF.

- Deterioration in health environment in great numbers of schools due to the distribution of sewage drainage system in some governorates that led to the overflowing of sewage water in great number of schools. Also, shortage in supplying structural equipments such as glass, heating and cooling systems, toilets, detergents and disinfects, first-aid kits and environment protection led to the increase of childhood diseases.

- Lots of children, pupils and students were affected by lack of medicines that are necessary to treat their various diseases, specially those resulted from lack of proper diet, led them subject to chronic diseases, anaemia, general weakness and fatigue. This had great influence on their studies because of their incapability to practice their educational activities and to concentrate on their studies, also caused their teachers to double their teaching efforts. Studies showed that 29% of Iraqi children are undernourished and children affected by severe malnutrition is 3.6%.

- The embargo led to the drop-out of great number of children in kinder gardens due to high cost of transportation, lack of feeding and lack of toys and education materials, also the economical problem of the families. Only 63913 of both sexes were registered in kinder gardens for ages (4-5) out of the planned number which is 118662.

- The embargo affected the scientific interaction with the world relating to researches, literature due to cultural embargo and the disability to purchase cultural publications because of shortage in the hard currency of Iraq.

- The closing of great number of Iraqi schools abroad, where Iraqi and Arab pupils and students used to receive their education. School numbers in 1990/1991 were (16) elementary and secondary schools, having 7913 students, now they are (11) schools having 520 students.

- The embargo had a negative affect on the behavior attitude of the students, some undesirable behaviors in the educational environment such as steeling, manipulate school properties, lack of values, cheating and not passing the exams on purpose.

- The embargo caused a clear decline in students and educational bodies desire to receive education or teach. Also this caused weak relations between local society and the school because majority of parents are occupied to financially support their families which prevent them to cooperate with the school and follow-up their children educational acquisition.

The embargo had a clear negative effect on training the work force in the Ministry whether in the field of rehabilitation. This negative effect was reflected on the quality and quantity of training abilities. Although several training programmes for training personnel, principles of schools and workers in education administration were implemented during the years of the embargo, however, they were only of short duration and did not cover the necessary training needed.

Likewise, these programmes were implemented in the governorates but the Institute of Educational Development and Training in Baghdad, the central institute specialized in these programmes, did not contribute to these programmes because of the unavailability of the necessary funding needed to send personnel to Baghdad for training purposes and since the lecturers in these training sessions in the governments, particularly in the training of secondary school teachers and school principles, were of very limited experience, thus the end effect of these sessions were not of the necessary and required standard.

The very difficult circumstances resulting from the embargo led a great number of the work force in the field of education and education administration to leave. In addition, a great number of the educational and teaching bodies were obliged to find outside employment not connected with their original occupation. This left a negative effect on the quality of education. 24133 teachers and 2024 employees left temporarily during 1996 (long or short leave, maternity leave, and others), and 4278 teachers and 1546 employee left permanently during 1996 (retirement, resignation, leaving the profession).

In order to keep up with the advancement in the use of technical educational equipment, the Ministry of Education undertook a project to teach computer in secondary schools as a first state for the year 1980/1988 thought 1995/1996. 161 schools were included from a total of 1185 schools, and the schools involved were supplied with a system of 13 computer units for every teaching laboratory in in every school to train students together with a number of programmes.

This programme did not achieve any progress during the period of 1991 and after because the contract signed in order to import necessary machines included in the communique of understanding (first and second stage) was suspended and they have not been approved of up till now. There is a need to provide 28972 computer units for training purposes.

Iraq started to implement the principles of education for all two decades prior to the international declaration regarding education for all which was decreed by the International Conference held in Juwitan, Thailand in 1990. Iraq had initiated a national campaign to eradicate illiteracy beginning 1978. This campaign was given a legal status after the State took it upon itself to combat illiteracy in accordance with the Constitution.

The project aimed at freeing the illiteracy of the age group (15-45) who numbered 2,212,630 of whom 676,693 were males and 1,535,937 million females, the number of students in eradicating illiteracy classes reached 1,986,136 of both sexes. This comprised 90% of the desired number. This plan was segmented by a secondary plan to clear the remaining pockets of illiterates who failed to join the centers for illiteracy eradication, thus, those who completed the initial steps of illiteracy eradication were enrolled into Popular Schools. The necessary funds needed to cover the expenses of this campaign and the Popular schools were 450 million USD, thus, the illiteracy rate in the census of 1987 was reduced to 19.2% compared to what it was in the 1977 census 42.9%.

However, after the cessation of the national campaign for compulsory eradication of illiteracy, Youth schools enrolled numbers of children older than 10 years of age who failed to enroll in elementary schools. These schools numbered 28 and 8 annexed classes which concluded (1612) students of both sexes for the year 1996/1997.

However, the period which followed the imposition of the embargo witnessed a clear faltering due to obstacles faced in its inability to provide the necessary materials and financial requirements to enable it to continue its programme. A great number of students dropped out and the schools had to be closed. Youth schools likewise faced the same problem. Also, the difficulties that emerged from the inability to interact with Arab and International Organizations in the fields of education added another factor in halting activities in this field.

The subject of special classes for students who are slow of learning and who are visually or hearing impaired had received the special attention of the Ministry of Education during the 70s and 80s. Thus, the Ministry had started since 1978 in opening classes for special education and preparing specialized personnel to teach its students, and in supplying these classes with special instruments and learning appliances especially for them. The number of schools that contained classes for this specialized education numbered 220 containing 2,710 students and the number of its teachers was 476. Of the specialized teaching appliances that these classes were supplied with before the imposition of the embargo, included magnetic boards, slide projectors, radios, overhead projectors and others. Yet, the field of specialized education had not witnessed any growth after 1991 and until present because of the unavailability of necessary funding to open additional classes in this field.