- BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net)
-- Iraqi university students and professors, including the deputy president
of the Baghdad-based Al-Nahrien University, firmly oppose any attempt to
"Americanize" universities and would only support
"cooperation"
with American educational institutions.
-
- Dr. Faek Gawwad al-Ezzawi told IslamOnline.net that the
U.S. administration in Iraq, which is working on "twining" Iraqi
universities with American peers, keeps special plans for his time-honored
university which once carried the name of ousted president Saddam
Hussein.
-
- "It (plan) dates back to almost two months when
U.S. officials visited the university in the posh Gadriaa area and were
surprised at its quasi-American education system," he recalled.
-
- The Iraqi official said the Americans were thinking to
turn the university into an American similar to those in Egypt and
Lebanon.
-
- Ezzawi also indicated that some Iraqi professors held
meetings with Iraqi "pointmen" to communicate with the American
official in charge of the Iraqi education file to conclude twining
agreements
between Iraqi and American universities.
-
- He, however, stopped short of naming the American
universities
or fixing a date to put such agreements into fruition.
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- 'Americanization'
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- Though Ezawwi rebuffed the "Americanization"
of the Iraqi universities he welcomed "cooperation" protocols
regarding "curricula, researches, future plans and mutual
visits."
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- "Our universities should hold on to their
independence,"
stressed the university deputy chief.
-
- Anmar, a student at the faculty of science, saw eye to
eye with Ezawwi, approving only curricula development on par with American
universities.
-
- "Baghdad University will remain independent and
under the authority of the ministry of high education and scientific
research,"
he said.
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- "Iraq abounds with brilliant and competent
professors,
who can keep pace with the latest development in the West and the United
States," Anmar remarked.
-
- Khaled Khalil, another student, echoed the
mainstream.
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- "Iraq is a free and independent country and our
university will never be in American hands," he said.
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- Privatization
-
- Ezzawi further said that education in Iraq has been
always
free-of-charge, noting that the idea of privatizing Iraqi universities
"has not been debated yet."
-
- "Some parties are encouraging Iraqi universities
to get foreign aid but none has been granted any financial assistance thus
far," he said, criticizing insufficient allotments from the occupation
authorities in Iraq.
-
- But Ezzawi did not spare the deposed Iraqi regime the
blame, saying pre-war chaos in the education system dragged on.
-
- "We used to buy books and photocopy it and then
distribute the copies among the students, and now it is the same as ever,
given the insufficient funding," he asserted.
-
- Some universities, in light of the anarchy that mired
the country in the aftermath of Baghdad downfall, have doubled and even
tripled their admission fees, such as the Baghdad-based Al-Rafdeen
University.
-
- "The university displayed a notification of
admission
fees, which sky-rocketed from 250,000 Iraqi dinars to 650,000 (1800 dinars
equals one dollar)," said Mohammad Hani, a marketing student.
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- New Curricula
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- On the nature of university curricula now that Saddam
Hussein is out of picture, Ezzawi said Al-Nahrien University, for instance,
has wiped out a book on the deposed president which was obligatory.
-
- He noted that the university also penciled out some parts
from other textbooks, which trumpeted the ideas of the disbanded Baath
party.
-
- As for the curricula of the faculty of political sciences
in the university, Ezzawi asserted that they were devoid of anything
related
to the former regime.
-
- "All Saddam photos and Baath slogans have been
rubbed
out from all textbooks," he put it in a nutshell.
-
- Following the Baathist revolution in July 1968, the
education
sector in Iraq took a new turn, as Baathists made education charge-free
and paid due attention to cadres.
-
- After the first Gulf War between Iraq and Iran, curricula
gradually turned to "glorify" any thing made by Saddam.
-
- On July 7, the occupation authorities erased
any mention of Saddam and his party in school curricula and annulled and
the scholarships granted to those favored by the ousted leader.
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- http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-08/28/article08.shtml
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