Shafaq News- Baghdad
Printing textbooks for Iraq’s primary, intermediate and secondary schools, as well as vocational education, costs the government between 150 billion and 200 billion Iraqi dinars (about $114.7M-153M), Parliament’s Education Committee told Shafaq News on Saturday.
The committee’s chair Zulaikha Elias said that the ministry is currently printing textbooks and distributing them to education directorates, which will then deliver them to students through their schools.
The Education Committee warned earlier this month of textbook shortages at schools across Iraq less than two weeks before the new academic year.
On August 7, the ministry said this year’s textbook-printing allocation amounted to about one-third of the funding provided in previous years relative to student numbers, prompting greater reliance on reused textbooks.
Regarding curricula, Elias said that the Prime Minister’s Office had directed authorities to revise some subjects, but financial constraints had delayed the changes.