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Iraq's education sector crippled by bloodshed
Reuters (UK)
By Mussab Al-Khairalla
November 14, 2006

BAGHDAD, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Even before Tuesday's audacious mass kidnapping of dozens of employees at a Higher Education Ministry building in central Baghdad, teaching in Iraq was a deadly profession.

Ever since the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in April 2003 and the violence that has erupted since, university professors and other academics from various backgrounds have frequently been targets of assassinations. More than 100 have been killed.

Scientists in Baghdad have been known for many centuries as regional and international pioneers in mathematics and medicine, but the violence and exodus of academics has reduced a once-thriving academic community to a state of fear.

One student in her final year at Baghdad University said only half of her class had shown up this year.

"Most of us are afraid. We have tried to get permission to study at home and only turn up for exams," said the student, who gave her name only as Ruqeya.

"Our tutor and one of our classmates were assassinated in the summer, another student in our class died in a car bombing."

Just this month, Jasim al-Thahabi, the dean of Baghdad University's Administration and Economics, was killed with his wife and son in a drive-by shooting.

The violence has led many more academics to flee Iraq, leaving Iraq's Education and Higher Education Ministries struggling to provide students with a comprehensive curriculum.

Assassinations of professors are not the only problem.

In the restless city of Baquba, primary and secondary schools have been shut for a month since insurgents ordered civil disobedience and threatened to attack schools that opened.

Tuesday's raid in broad daylight, in Baghdad's relatively stable Karrada district, was the last straw, said Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab.

"How can I ask our employees to go to their offices?" he told parliament. "There is no option in front of me other than to stop education in Baghdad."

Dhiab later told Reuters he had not ordered an immediate shutdown to universities but would consider the option "if things go on this way".

It is not clear who is targeting academics, frequent victims of assassinations that have also claimed the lives of doctors and other professionals. Some Iraqis say it is just part of the sectarian violence gripping the country while others have said the problems arise from rebellious students.

Hazim al-Nuaimi, a political science professor at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, said the threat against him and his colleagues was constantly increasing.

"From the beginning of this academic year there is fear amongst the professors and we have discussed suggestions to suspend the academic year if security deteriorates further," he said.

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