Opinion: New Era

The education minister knows very well that the schools suffer from a shortage of teachers and books, and students from the poorest neighbourhoods are not fed meals. Rather than concentrate on separating boys from girls, which the minister himself supervises, these issues need to be solved. The elite that returned from the west to run Iraq after the fall of the regime agrees to Islamise the schools and (divide) them based on gender. At the same time, the sons of Iraqi officials still study in western schools without weakening their ethics -- they even receive scientific sexual education. Imitating the Iranian, Afghan, American or the British educational systems will not help Iraqi students; their level of education will in fact decline. It seems that the minister does not know that colleges and institutes are independent scientific houses. There is no way to politicise them and impose certain instructions on students and teachers. The minister is still mute on why he decided to separate boys from girls and to prevent male teachers from lecturing in girls' institutes.