Shafaq News / As the new school year draws to a close, the Ministry of Education is facing a crisis in providing books to students, threatening to severely impact the quality of education in Iraq.

The political fallout has had a huge negative impact on education in the country, represented by the drastic shortage of processing textbooks this year.

Shafaq News agency's correspondent spoke with kids from various schools about their books and the situation in their institutions amid this crisis.

"My school handed out old used books to the students. The books I received had sticky tapes on them to hold their shredded papers together", fourth-grade student Amir Karrar said.

"Social sciences and reading books were not provided for me."

Haider Sajjad, a sixth-grader, told Shafaq News agency, "Even though the books are old and used, I did not receive all of them. The teachers stated that the students must make do because the remaining books are unavailable."

"The books I received with my friends are all heavily damaged and incomplete," said Sarah Ali, a primary school second-grader, adding, "When we asked the teachers about the rest of the books, they said that this is all we have."

Moreover, school administrations appear to be forcing students to purchase textbooks, stationery, and other supplies, increasing the burden on parents, particularly those with more than one school-age child.

"The suffering begins with the start of the school year. We must purchase books and stationery, the prices of which rise year after year amid a difficult economic situation," said Um Zaid, a Najaf resident.

Sudden news

"When I went to pick up my daughter's books, who is in sixth grade, the school principal told me that my daughter's stage books are unavailable," Um Zaid explained.

"Everyone understands how important sixth grade is, and students should begin studying for it as soon as possible because the Ministry itself sets the final exam. What should I do? I have three children and cannot purchase or even copy all the books my daughter's friends purchased from bookstores."

Um Zaid continued, "Why did the Ministry of Education fail to provide students with books? I saw the primary students' books; they were all shredded and incomplete. I request that the Ministry of Education take this matter seriously and provide books and stationery to students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues in previous years."

According to the Director General of Education of Baghdad/al-Karkh III, Saad al-Rubaie, "All directorates of education in Iraq, except the Kurdistan Region, are suffering from a crisis in providing books. This is due to a lack of financial allocations to the Ministry for printing books."

"This issue was reported more than six months ago: the Ministry of Education does not have financial allocations, and we will face a crisis in the distribution of books to students at the beginning of the school year. Furthermore, the House of Representatives and the government have been petitioned to resolve this crisis, but no funds have been allocated, and no budget for printing books has been established."

He indicated, "all books, except the English language subject, are deficient for all stages due to the lack of a sufficient budget to cover printing them," and that "the Ministry of Education is waiting for funding from the Food Security Law to equip directorates with school books."

According to experts, the delay in printing and distributing books to students at the start of the school year is not unprecedented; it has occurred for many years due to the Ministry of Education's reliance on the federal budget.

Late processing

In this regard, Abbas al-Sudani, the head of the Iraqi Teachers' Syndicate, stated, "the Ministry of Education should not rely on the federal budget to print books. Unfortunately, despite being aware of the crisis, addressing it came late; the Ministry of education should have resorted to the Ministry of Finance earlier to disburse the money for printing books. In fact, this is what the two Ministries recently agreed upon."

"The Ministry of Education should terminate contracts by the end of the fourth month so that the presses are ready to prepare books on time", Al-Sudani added.

He added, "There is another issue that many have overlooked, namely the cancellation of the biological and practical branches", leaving many to wonder how the Ministry will address this issue.

"There are students whose specialization has changed. This is a problem that students will face, and we are waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Education in this regard."

Supportive factories

Concerning Iraqi factories that contribute to the provision of study supplies to students, Ramadan Abbas Salman, director of the Basra Paper Factory, stated, "the factory has been suspended since 2003, former administrations tried to reactivate the machines or refer them to investment, but many factors prevented it."

"We borrowed an abandoned machine for notebooks production from a factory, and managed to transfer it to the Basra paper factory with self-efforts by the factory management and the General Company for Petrochemical Industries," Salman added.

"A team of engineers and technicians restarted, developed, and transformed the machine to produce notebooks similar to those currently in local markets."

He elaborated, "The factory produces 8,000 books per day, which covers 50% of Iraq's needs, and the private sector's sales and demand for them is strong. In addition, committees have been formed to visit and assess the markets and businesses […] We hope to have the opportunity to develop and increase production to meet the needs of all Iraqi governorates."

Salman explained, "an Arabic 60-sheet notebook costs 350 dinars, an English 60-sheet notebook costs 100 dinars, 20 sheet pamphlet costs 350 dinars, a stripped stack of papers costs 1500 dinars, and a 500 plain white stack of paper costs 3750 dinars."

It is noteworthy that the new school year begins on October 1, as is customary in the country. However, this date coincides with the third anniversary of the Tishreen (October) Revolution, prompting the Ministry of Education to postpone the start date to October 12.