Education ministry to end Iraq's mud schools
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraqi Education Minister Abdul Karim Abtan al-Jubouri said on Thursday that Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi has tasked him with ending the use of caravan and mud-brick schools, and that his ministry would seek to do so through the next federal budget.
"Mud and caravan* schools are not worthy of Iraq's civilization," al-Jubouri said during a meeting with school administrators.
Iraq is short more than 10,000 schools and relies on about 1,000 mud-built and caravan schools, Education Ministry spokesperson Karim Al-Sayyid told Shafaq News in September. The shortage has forced some schools to run double and triple shifts. About 1,700 schools entered service last year under a Chinese-backed construction project, and another 700 through other programs.
Earlier this month, four students fainted from the heat at caravan schools in Basra's Shatt Al-Arab district, where electricity had not been switched on because of fears of electric shocks.
