Ministry prints 80 million school textbooks

 

By Sameer Nasser

 

Azzaman, 2005-01-11

 

More than 80 million school textbooks were printed last year, according to Education Minister Sami Mudhafar.

 

Mudhafar said the books, covering more than 600 titles, were handed out to nearly six million Iraqi students.

 

The minister said the content of at least 16 titles was drastically changed to meet the needs of the new era.

 

Texts praising former leader Saddam Hussein, exhibiting sectarian or ethnic supremacy or claiming Kuwait was still part of Iraq were all removed, he said.

 

The educational sector, like many other things in Iraq, was an exclusive territory of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party.

 

Only party members were allowed to teach and those who refused to join the Baath party ranks were sacked.

 

Mudhafar said more than 30,000 teachers the former regime had fired were reinstated in their positions.

 

The minister said demand for both teachers and school buildings was still high in Iraq.

 

“More than 25,000 qualified graduates have been appointed,” he said.

 

He said almost all graduates of teacher training colleges and institutes in the country have been given jobs at the ministry.