Dhi Qar compensates for lack of schools by triple shifts
Shafaq News/ It is uncommon for an Iraqi school to accommodate both elementary and secondary students at the same time. However, this is the new normal for the southern governorate of Dhi Qar, where the few functional schools are forced to operate in triple shifts to keep up with the curriculum.
The students in Dhi Qar's al-Garmah district travel many kilometers daily to their "temporary" schools, which have replaced their “permanent” under-reconstruction facilities.
The students' parents told Shafaq News agency about their children's suffering and urged local authorities in the district to push for the completion of the reconstruction work. The schools were demolished several years ago but the construction was halted due to the country's financial crisis during the war on ISIS.
According to Ali Karim, a local activist in al-Garmah, "Garmah of Bani Sa'ad houses a total of five schools, all of which are pending reconstruction. After relentless efforts, we managed to start the work in three only."
"Nearly 3,000 students in al-Garmah have been displaced from their original schools," he added.
"As for the remaining two: the first is in the district's center, which is regarded as the most important school there and has a completion rate of more than 90%. The other is in al-Qabas area, in which only the foundations are constructed."
Karim stressed that "the three under-reconstruction schools were demolished in 2014 and are yet to be completed."
"Female students are the most affected by school demolition because their alternative is three to four kilometers away."
The district's administrator, Ali Saleh al-Hilu, stated, "three schools in al-Garmah have been closed since 2013-2014. Work on them, as well as the other three schools now under construction within the 2019 budget, restarted last week."
"Al-Garmah suffers greatly in terms of school attendance because all the students in the district should be crammed in those three shifts. We need a significant change to end this issue," he continued.
"The district's administration currently has nine schools under construction," Al-Hilu explained, "the construction work in three of them has been restarted, one of the schools only needs an external fence, three are pending completion, while the last two schools are built per the Chinese loan and are yet to be built."
"By opening these schools, we will be able to end the triple shifts and put everything back into normal," he said.
Wasfi al-Ibrahimi, assistant director-general of Dhi Qar's Provincial Education Directorate, told Shafaq News Agency that "if the governorate wishes to get rid of the double and triple shifts in schools, it must build more than 800 primary, middle, and high schools."
Regarding the triple shift system in some schools, al-Ibrahimi stated, "it is due to several factors, most notably the locals' rejection of closing schools in their areas, and the Education Directorate's inability to equip the new schools due to the delay in approving the budget."
He concluded, "our main challenge is to complete the construction of the schools that have been halted due to the war against ISIS."
