Shafaq News, Metro
Despite huge budgets and large funds allocated to Dhi Qar governorate (southern Iraq) during the past 19 years, its officials have not been able to put an end to mud and caravan schools.
Even though the governorate had a sense of "security" during those years, unlike other cities across the country, those who were at the helm of its rule were unable to manage the mud schools file for reasons related to politics and "administrative corruption."
"Caravan schools" are structures made of iron, which have been developed as a temporary solution instead of schools that have been deliberately demolished on the grounds that they are about to collapse, and lack the least safety standards.
"Our children are still suffering from their poorly constructed school, Minnet al-Mannan, as they are still studying at a dilapidated caravan school, despite the cold weather," residents of al-Awadiya area in al-Duwaiya district, northeast of Nasiriyah, the center of Dhi Qar, told Shafaq News agency.
"Sometimes, lessons are given in the open air", residents said, calling on government agencies to pay attention to their region, which lacks basic life commodities, similar to the rest of the district.
"The number of schools in Dhi Qar is 2,047, including kindergartens, primary, middle, and secondary schools, and the number of school buildings in the governorate is about 1,170, according to the latest statistics conducted in 2021," according to a special human rights report.
According to the report, the governorate currently has 22 mud schools and 118 caravan schools scattered across the governorate.
"The majority of the mud and caravan schools in the governorate lack the most basic pedagogical requirements, in addition to the shortage of teaching staff, due to favoritism through which teachers are transferred to places close to their homes," the report stated.
The report also monitored "some teachers taking students out to study in the open air, because of the poor state of classes within those schools".
"The district needs a huge number of schools. We have recently obtained approval to build 20," said Naeem al-Saidi, al-Duwaiya district administrator, "the construction of two schools will be financed by the regions' development budget. A second group of schools will be finalized soon."
"The number of mud schools in al-Duwaiya district is 22, which were turned into caravan schools, and then work began to reconstruct them, but it stopped years ago. We demanded -in vain- that the contract be terminated with the implementing companies and referred to other ones to complete them", al-Saidi told Shafaq News agency.
"Minnet al-Mannan".. from caravan to mud
"Minnet al-Mannan school is a caravan school located in al-Awadiya village, and the number of its students is very few... They are studying inside the classes. What was being circulated on social media about students studying outside is unfounded," said al-Saidi.
Complete and incomplete projects
"The most important projects established in the district four schools within the provincial development projects, including a model school in the great area behind al-Mo'minat school, al-Iman high school at Al Sayed Taher's, the Bahr al-Uloom high school and a school in the martyr Yasser Khafi neighborhood," al-Saidi added.
He continued, "Also, the provincial development projects include establishing a model school in the village of Rahima Al Omar, an additional wing in the School of A'imat al-Huda in the neighborhood of al-Hakim II, a multi-purpose hall in al-Duwaiya high school, as well as a kindergarten."
"There is serious and ongoing follow-up with the relevant authorities to re-establish the projects in all neighborhoods, villages, and rural areas of the district."
Dhi Qar's education department explains
Dhi Qar's director-general of education, Mohammed Lafta, stated, "Minnet al-Mannan school in Al-Duwaiya district is a 52 students school with a capacity of nine classes, and is currently under construction."
"The Ministry of Education has concluded the mud schools file. There were 106 mud schools in the governorate, all turned into Caravan schools, including Minnet al-Mannan. All those schools were referred for construction; work started in some of which while it was hindered in many others due to unprofessionalism of the companies that took over the construction."
"Furthermore, the first project to establish schools stopped in 2014, and the achievement rates remained low," he added.
"Only 40 schools have been completed. The rest are still under construction. The caravans were temporarily set up to address the situation until the completion of the construction work," he said.
Regarding the pictures that went viral on social media showing students studying in the open air at the Minnet al-Mannan school in al-Duwaiya district, Lafta commented, "There are caravan classes for students at the school, and the teaching staff took the students out once when it was sunny because the school cannot get the students out and teach them in this harsh atmosphere."