Higher Education in a Tremulous Environment: The shock
makes the Iraqi society forget to face the drain of its scientific brain
By Dr. Tahir Al-Bakka[*]
Iraqi higher
education institutions, once the most modern in the Middle East, were
suffocated under Saddam’s rule and then further devastated by the
Iraq is one of the
Middle Eastern countries where higher education grew early after WWI, followed
by vigorous development of higher education institutions during the seventies
when the Iraqi government both sent thousands of students to study in different
universities around the world particularly to developed countries and expanded
in opening new universities, departments and fields of study based on a
well-studied plan.
However, the
eight-year-long bloody Iraq-Iran war produced fatal policies concerning higher
education. First, Saddam’s regime stopped the Study Abroad Scholarship Program
in 1983 and replaced it by expanding higher education programs within the
country. Simultaneously, all monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions to
scientific and academic journals were stopped. The budget allocated to these
two important developmental fields was forwarded to the military budget to
support the war machine against
Then, the embargo
imposed on
The looting that
followed the fall of the regime resulted in the destruction of approximately
90% of university institutions. Looters ransacked university buildings and
stripped campuses of their books, computers, lab equipment and desks. Most
Iraqi universities –twenty in total—were burnt, looted and destroyed during the
2003
Debaathification—a
policy to purge senior officials of Hussein's Baath Party from official posts,
including universities—cost universities more than one thousand Iraqi
professors hugely damaging the teaching and learning process particularly in
the filed of graduate education which forced the closure of studies in 153
scientific sub-fields. It resulted in the immigration or termination of
contracts of more than one thousand university faculty. The most serious attack
against the inviolability of universities was the assassination of more than
100 university professors in day light and
the notorious phenomena of numerous political parties and factions’
interference in higher education affairs.
The fall of
Saddam’s regime and consequent break of the fear barrier led to the emergence
of religious and political parties and factions. These interfered in the
internal affairs of university life thus confiscating university
administrations’ command in many locations and imposing practices unprecedented
in university campuses. Teachers fear for their lives from students who belong
to those religious and political parties. In fact, over one hundred university
teachers from different fields have been assassinated; all assassinations have
been recorded against anonymous. This fear and reality of assassination has led
several hundreds of university faculty to flee the country, including those
with high specialties in important subjects
like medicine, engineering, math and other.
Furthermore, the
continuation of these assassinations until now, hinder the return of those
university professors that had left during Saddam’s rule. As such, Iraqi
universities have lost the qualified faculty it once had. Nowadays, Iraqi
universities live in a spiral of depletion under chaotic conditions, disorder
and the control of religious parties on some university locations as well as
disrespect from other parties of the independence of universities. Each party
aspires to impose its ideas and policies on university students and faculty and
thus the ‘Iraqi brain’ has become at the forefront of danger. And until now, no
one, from within or outside the country has been able to answer the tough
question of the Iraqi public: why do assassinations target in particular the
living cells of the Iraqi body?
Concerned with the
dangers surrounding higher education in
Under such harsh
reality, in fact pungent, a realistic persistent question comes to mind: what
are the methodical and reliable means to protect, support, and rebuild Iraqi
universities and academic life? The most pressing question is where to start?
The proper step for a vigorous beginning is to start from within the Iraqi
society. Iraqis, parties, factions, university administrations and students,
need to agree to recognize that
the sanctity of university campuses equals that of worship places, and
therefore, they deserve the protection and respect from religious and political
interference. All parties need to abide by the principles of the Erbil
declaration mentioned above and the principles stipulated by the Universities
of the World at the International Conference held by UNESCO in 1950, in
Complying with and
securing these principles, and the proper level of the rule of law,
In fact, we had
taken strategic steps in that direction in 2004 under Iyad Allawi’s government,
including the dedication of US $25 million every month for the purpose of
building and rebuilding infrastructural projects for Iraqi universities. That interim government had fully recognized
that investing in education was investing in the future and was no less
important than immediate investment to resist terrorism and impose safety and
security. Consequently, the government had allocated US $100 million annually
to support top students in pursuing higher education in developed countries,
namely the
a)
Revising university curricula and
replacing the required textbooks imposed by the previous regime with guiding
sources that encourage scientific research;
b)
Connecting or reconnect Iraqi
universities as partners or twins with US and
c)
Modernizing of labs and connecting
Iraqi universities through intranet and necessary equipment to transmit
lectures from developed universities to students in Iraqi universities.
d)
Encouraging the private education sector
and allow the establishment of non-governmental universities.
e)
Allowing overseas universities to open
branches in
f)
Re-training teaching staff in Iraqi
universities through short-term research scholarships in developed
universities.
g)
Resuming international scientific and
academic relations severed during the war and sanctions
h)
Encouraging scientific research and
allocate a generous budget for that.
i)
Halting opening new universities until
conditions are appropriate.
Higher education is
the producer of the innovative scientific mind. That requires that certain
conditions be secured to ensure critical and independent thinking, research and
investigation, publishing, and expression of opinion in a free and independent
manner inside and outside the classroom. Higher education is to be respected at
the social and official level since a society that respects its scientists and
academics reflects its civilization. Iraqi culture facilitates such approach as
the Iraqi academic and intellectual environment still believes in the inherited
notion that “scientists are the descendants of the prophets.” Will we be able
to return the high status to university teachers? Will we perceive scientific
and technologic development as essential criteria for community development? We
would definitely need to refresh our memories with what Egyptian poet Ahmed
Shawki said: The teacher is almost a prophet.
The shortest way to rehabilitate and develop Iraqi higher
education is through integrating the sector in the international arena of
higher education through partnerships. World countries interested in supporting
Iraq and its future, as well as in the region, should open their gates for
Iraqi scholars, students and teachers who are sent on scholarships, and provide
them with facilities and support to contribute to the larger project of
developing Iraqi universities and ultimately achieve the highest potential of
our society to participate in the altar of scientific advancement. The brain of
the Iraqi body is bleeding and is therefore incapable of standing up to face
the shock of tremendous change caused by the fall of the dictatorship and to
start building a democratic state.
[*] Dr. Tahir
Al-Bakaa, was appointed Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research,
in May, 2004. Prior to that, Dr. Al-Bakaa was President of Al Mustansiriya
University, having held professorships there since 1991, where his academic
responsibilities included appointments as chairman of the Department of History
in 1994, chairman of the Academic Promotion Committee from 1996 to 2003, and
editor of the college press. Dr. Al-Bakaa earned his BA, MA, and Ph.D. in
history from
[†] http://www.unesco.org/iau/p_statements/af_statement.html