Shafaq News- Karbala

Karbala needs 350 new schools to ease overcrowding and reduce its reliance on prefabricated classrooms, Mohammed al-Masoudi, a member of the Provincial Council, told Shafaq News on Friday, blaming delays in approving Iraq’s 2024, 2025 and 2026 budgets for stalling hundreds of projects across the province.

The budget delays have also left the provincial government owing contractors about 300 billion Iraqi dinars ($229M). Masoudi said the delays had negatively affected Karbala, as they had in other Iraqi provinces.

The pressure on schools has grown with Karbala’s rising population. The province has attracted large numbers of residents from other parts of the country, partly because of the holy shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas and the construction activity that has expanded across the province.

That population growth has increased demand for schools, adding to the strain created by the lack of education-sector funding over the past three years.

The provincial administration, led by Governor Nassif Jassim al-Khattabi, has sought to ease the shortage by building new schools, renovating hundreds of existing ones and maintaining school facilities, including sanitation units, Masoudi noted. Karbala now has more than 1,030 schools, while around 30 or fewer remain prefabricated.

Plans for further construction, however, have been held back by the budget delays. The Iraq Development Fund was expected to begin work on 200 schools in Karbala at the start of 2026, but construction has yet to begin.

“Completing those projects would create more space in existing schools, allow most to operate on two shifts and provide students with a more suitable learning environment,” he added.

The shortage extends beyond classrooms. During a visit several days ago to the supplies department at the Karbala Directorate of Education, Masoudi found no textbooks for primary, middle or secondary school students.

With the new academic year due to begin on Sept. 20, the Education Ministry should already be printing and distributing the books so they can reach students before classes start, he urged, calling on the ministry to speed up the delivery of school supplies and the printing of textbooks to ensure schools are ready for the new academic year.

Read more: Discover Iraq: Karbala, where memory breathes and future beckons