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Wednesday 01 October 2003
Iraqi children go back to school
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Several million Iraqi children go back to school this week for the start of the new academic year. Many will find radical changes to their classrooms, textbooks and even the style of teaching. This report from the BBC's Jill McGivering in Baghdad: |
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Under Saddam most Iraqi schools became desperately run-down. Now the US-led coalition is running a massive programme to rebuild and refurbish. It's still underway, but as the new school year starts, more than a thousand schools are finished.
Textbooks are being overhauled too. UN agencies are printing more than seventy-million new books which omit references to Saddam Hussein and his ideology. Until they're ready schools will use old books with political passages simply blacked out.
Children will no longer have to start the school day chanting Saddam's praises. But many may not attend at all. Some parents say they're so worried about the security situation they'd rather keep their children at home until the country is more stable.
Jill McGivering, BBC, Baghdad
Listen to the words
run-down
in a very poor condition
coalition
a group of different organisations or people who are working together with a particular aim
refurbish
to clean and make more up-to-date
finished
here, completed
textbooks
books used in schools or by students
overhauled
improved, refurbished
ideology
set of beliefs
blacked out
here, covered up with black ink, so that they cannot be read
chanting Saddam's praises
if you chant someone's praises you repeat words which support them
they'd rather
they prefer to
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