June 2004

Educating Iraq: New Schools and New Lessons for a New Nation

John Agresto
Coalition Provisional Authority

There are twenty major public universities and forty-three public technical institutes in Iraq.  Iraq once had the best higher-education system in the Middle East, especially in the sciences.  But after sanctions, Saddam's rule, and the looting that followed the war, this is no longer the case.

Since the fall of Saddam, there is incredible openness, dialogue, and intellectual inquiry despite fear of religious and political coercion.  Iraqi professors have been removed from the outside world for so long that they are desperately trying to make connections, especially with the United States and Great Britain. One of Ambassador Bremer's first orders was to continue the policy of academic travel; more than twenty American universities assisted a USAID exchange project despite considerable security concerns.

Universities are also growing more independent.  When there was no ministry, university presidents were brought together to govern the university system.  They still meet and work together with the ministry.  There is a new system in place to propose candidates for university presidents and deans through peer recommendation.

Limitations on the enrollment of women have been abolished, along with the system giving preference to friends of the Baath party.  Enrollment last year increased from 60,000 first-year students to over 90,000. Infrastructure is being improved, especially with regard to Internet access and technology, and library collections are growing.  Over twenty tons of books have been donated to universities.

The universities and the new minister of education have pledged the following: to operate without sectarian or political intimidation and without affiliation to sect or party; to promote and preserve academic freedom, the freedom of inquiry, the freedom to write and to publish, the freedom to travel, and the freedom to expel those who violate these terms.

The major problem with Iraqi education is its narrowness.  Iraqi universities under Saddam aimed to produce experts in a given field or vocation.  Curricula for "liberal education" do not exist in Iraq, but the next generation of Iraqi leadership will need liberal education to expand their vision of the world and themselves.  Many of the current educational leaders know nothing about history, economics, political science, or philosophy; whole universities do not even touch these subjects. There is also an absence of critical dialogue, probably deriving from the beliefs that you cannot question religion, your fathers, your professors, or the textbook. Iraqi students must learn to argue based on reasons derived from the examination of issues rather than from passion and volume.

The CPA made its share of mistakes in Iraq, as did the Governing Council (GC). First, the GC empowered the loudest factions, rather than basing representation on geographical electoral districts where moderate candidates could emerge.  During the CPA's administration, sectarian lines were sharpened in Iraq.

The second mistake was a tendency to think that the transition to democracy would be easy. Democracy requires a convergence of factors, including limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, calendared elections, staggered elections, plurality selection, different terms of office, federalism with national supremacy, development of a civic spirit and civic responsibility, and the breaking and moderation of factions. But a democratic country also requires a democratic people.  The Iraqi love of family, tribe, and religion are easily visible, but after years of totalitarian rule, love of neighbor, countrymen, and nation is harder to find.  There are no patriotic songs.  Optimism comes from knowing the new, technocratic government is incomparably better than the old; pessimism comes from doubts about when Iraqi leadership will emerge.

Ahmed al-Rahim
National Endowment for Democracy and Harvard University

The civics curriculum in secondary schools in Iraq is taught from a faith-based Sunni approach. Proposals for the new curriculum to teach religious pluralism were met with resistance by the older generation of educators--until they were reminded that if the Shiites come to power, they might decide to emphasize their own religious history. These discussions have been moderated by the younger curriculum developers. Hopefully, American academics will be able to help Iraqis develop a civics curriculum that is not based on faith, but on history. And hopefully this history will teach Islam's historical diversity rather than extremism.

USAID was extremely ambiguous about standards for curriculum reform. Plans to present Iraqis with an American-formulated curriculum were impractical, but when this reality sunk in, there was not enough time to develop and write a new curriculum, so the old curriculum without Saddamist/Baathist civics was used. Though not ideal, this has presented educators with the unique opportunity of pointing out to their students what is wrong with the old lessons, and why the new ones will teach them to think in a new way. The old curriculum will continue to be used in the 2004-2005 school year.

One of the problems with American policy is that it looks at Iraq through a sectarian lens.  But this ignores that Iraq is divided into a class structure in which Shiites and Sunnis share similar values. The Shiites will not necessarily vote as one block in the elections. Better self-government is a necessary component of alleviating fears about the future.

Eleana Gordon
Foundation for the Defense of Democracy

One of the challenges to building democracy in Iraq is the lack of technical understanding of liberal democracy among the elites. The basic conception of democracy among human rights and democracy activists, as well as other Iraqis who opposed Saddam, is often intuitive. Their concept of democracy has to do with freedom of expression, the protection of human rights, and the election of leaders. However, ideas such as separation of powers, checks and balances, and individual liberty are not clearly understood. Concepts like minority rights and protection from tyranny of the majority, the connection between political and economic freedom and the importance of a free market, and the necessity of a constitution are also not well understood.

There are also many misconceptions about what democracy is. Democracy is majority rule, which they interpret to mean virtual anarchy. Iraqi leaders often emphasize rule by majority opinion. This is a cause for concern because if democracy means chaos, then it could be rejected on that basis. A rejection of authority can already be seen. Also, there is tremendous confusion over the role of religion in a democracy and the separation of religion and state. There is a misconception that religious women would not be allowed to participate in politics, and secularism is misunderstood. But Iraqi women have actually shown a tremendous amount of self-initiative. They have created hundreds of women's organizations and are hungry for economic self-sufficiency and knowledge.

Democracy is the only system of government that can work with such an ethnically and religiously diverse country. Iraq's youth is the hope for this country, with their understanding of diversity and English-speaking capabilities. What is lacking, however, is an understanding between the groups of common suffering under Saddam and a general knowledge of their own common history. History is what will bind people together and make them want to invest in a new system that will protect against the return of tyranny.

Hillel Fradkin
Hudson Institute

Iraq's old educational system was representative of the political environment in the region. The specialization into sciences was very useful for the regime, but not very good for democracy. But this type of educational system was the least threatening to the authorities, despite the fact that a large percentage of the leadership of radical Islam was trained in various sciences.

The biggest consequence of the absence of social sciences and humanities is the complete lack of knowledge of history. This helps foster the fantastical rumors and conspiracy theories that are rampant in this region of the world. The study of history was a prestigious discipline in the Moslem world, but it is difficult to jump-start in the wake of totalitarian rule. New history must be written, studied, and argued. This process in Iraq will impact the whole region.

The involvement of American institutions in this process, however, is problematic. Security concerns prevent more American academics from going to Iraq, but more American universities can bring Iraqi educators here to learn from the different academic environment.

This summary was written by AEI interns Shrayes Ramesh and Przemyslaw Praszczalek with Research Program Manager Molly McKew.