Education in Iraq
Iraq established its education system in 1921, offering both public and private paths. In the early 1970s, education became public and free at all levels, and mandatory at the primary level. Two ministries manage the education system in Iraq: the Ministry of Education [MOE] and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research [MOHSR]. The Ministry of Education is in charge of pre-school, primary, secondary, and vocational education, while the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific.
The golden period of education during 1970-1984, in this period we can make the illiteracy coping, the age of illiteracy from 15-45age, in this period the illiteracy in Iraq became only 10% of people. The government spending in Education reached 20% of Iraq’s total government budget. This means that the average spending per student for education was $620.
However, after the war with Iran in 1980, from 1984-1990, it turned led to a diversion of public resources towards military spending. Naturally, this resulted in a steep decline in overall social spending. With this, the education budget suffered from a deficit, which continued to grow as the years passed. There was also no strategic plan in place to address.
In the period 1991-2003, the educational institutions debilitated in further. Some of the incomes of the weakening budget , about 8% from the government budget , Government Spending per student on education dropped from $620 in the ‘Golden Years’ to $47 , Teacher salaries dropped in real terms, from $500–1000/month to $5/month in 1994-1999.
After 2003 till now the education have a relative recovery. Many schools were rehabilitated by MOE, the international organizations and other sides. Many private universities, colleges, schools, Intermediate schools and secondary schools were established in this period.
Still there are needs to recovery for education in Iraq, JEN will continue to support in this area.
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