UN-backed workshop aims to support education for Iraq’s children

The needs of 600,000 Iraqi children who recently missed out on their formal education were addressed in a three-day workshop involving the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Iraqi Ministry of Education, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other experts.

Participants in the workshop, which ended today, agreed on a strategy on non-formal education for Iraq’s out-of-school children – known as the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP).

A school survey conducted by the Ministry and facilitated by UNICEF in 2004 found that the net enrolment rate for primary education in Iraq was 86 per cent, commendably five per cent higher than the regional average for the Middle East.

This would seem to represent a significant achievement, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. “What is of concern,” notes UNICEF’s Special Representative for Iraq, Roger Wright, “is the fact that the number of out-of-school children in the primary age group is estimated to be 600,000, of which 74 per cent are girls.” He further observed that nearly 21 per cent of primary-school-age girls are not enrolled in classes and that almost 24 per cent of children drop out before completion of their primary education.

In order to meet the learning needs of children who have either never enrolled or dropped out of school early, the Ministry and UNICEF launched the ALP in September 2005. It currently covers some 14,000 children in 10 out of Iraq’s 18 Governorates.

The goal is to provide opportunities for out-of-school children to complete their primary education – normally a six year cycle – in a compressed three-year period, UNICEF said. Upon completion of this stage, children will be able to opt to rejoin the formal education system, enrol in vocational education courses, or acquire higher levels of education through distance education or alternative education modes.

“Directly enrolling these children in mainstream schools may not always be possible, particularly in the case of older ones who will not be comfortable if seated with younger ones,” observed Maman Sidikou, the Senior Education Officer for UNICEF Iraq, adding that while these children may not have attended formal schools, most of them have probably acquired essential survival skills that, in many cases, are practical applications of learning that they would otherwise have obtained in the classroom.