 |
Iraq Education Program Year 1
May 2003- March 2004
Recipient of USAID school supplies at Al Eman Secondary
School. |
The education system in Iraq was widely regarded as one the best in the Middle East until the 1980’s. Between the 1960s and 1990s, Iraq made great progress in enrollment at all levels of education and achieved near universal primary enrollment by 1980. During the 1990’s, however; the system seriously deteriorated due to overall neglect, in large part, a consequence of Iraq’s engagement in two wars.
Immediately after the conflict in May 2003, only one in six children had textbooks, teachers were unpaid, school facilities were in poor condition, shortages of supplies and equipment were endemic, and the quality of education was in serious decline. Combined with systematic looting and destruction of public property, most schools lacked plumbing, wiring, lighting, desks, windows and doors.
Primary Education Features
The following reports are provided in Adobe PDF format. If you have difficulty accessing these files, you may convert them to plain HTML using Adobe's PDF Conversion Tool.
- USAID-Iraq Education Program Overview Year 1
USAID's Year 1 Education Program—worth $74 million through primary education activities and approximately $70 million through secondary education activities—employs a dual strategy that focuses on emergency actions to support the resumption of schools while laying the foundations for critical reforms to ensure that the education system and schools can play a constructive role in rebuilding social cohesion and progress in Iraq.
- Re-equipping Iraq’s Schools: Materials Distribution Program
USAID procured and distributed
essential equipment for Governorate education
offices, schools, teachers and children
throughout Iraq to provide them with the
necessary tools to resume classes. This
included distributing teacher and student
supplies; equipping classrooms with desks,
chairs, cabinets and blackboards; revising,
printing and distributing math and science
textbooks and equipping MOE education offices.
- Iraqi Teachers Shaping Education:
Teacher Training Program
USAID's teacher training
program laid the foundation for changes in
teaching philosophies by encouraging
teachers to freely express themselves and
participate in decision making on training
content. A five day training program
included concepts like leadership, critical
thinking, mutual respect, freedom of
expression and team work.
- School Drop-Outs Get a Second Chance: Accelerated Learning Program
As part of USAID’s education program which
focused on emergency actions to support the
resumption of schools while laying the foundation
for future reform, the Accelerated Learning
Program gives children a second chance at
education.
- Ensuring Closure of 2003 School Year:
National Final Examination Program
Following the official re-opening of
virtually all 15,000 primary and
secondary schools in Iraq by CPA
and the Ministry of Education (MOE)
on May 3, 2003, an important
objective to ensure the orderly
conclusion of the school year was
established. This required the
administration of a very complex, final
national examination program across
the country. Given the total collapse
of the educational infrastructure, the
Coalition Provisional Authority along
with USAID was required to assume
complete responsibility for the
administration of the exam.
Higher Education Features
- Promoting Higher Education in Iraq:
USAID's HEAD Program
In support of the Higher Education Ministry, CPA
and USAID’s Higher Education and Development
(HEAD) Program brings together American and
Iraqi universities to aid with the reestablishment of
academic excellence in Iraq’s higher education
system. USAID has committed $20.7 million to
five partnerships that support Iraqi universities as
they emerge from years of isolation from
developments in teaching methodologies,
research, and curricula, and decades of
diminishing resources and infrastructure damage.
Maps
More Information
Back to Top ^
|
