TV link connects Iraqi school to US

Student's imaginations and ambitions are fired after a video exchange lets them talk directly to their 12-year-old counterparts in America.

The Iraqi education system, once the most advanced in the Middle East, has declined sharply amid years of war and sanctions.

KUT, IRAQ // For half of his young life, Muslim Ashor al Hadi has known a country under US occupation. Each day on the walk home from school, he would see US troops in sunglasses, rifles at the ready, as heavily armoured lorries thundered by. But despite their heavy presence in his hometown of Kut, and the pivotal role played by the United States in determining his fate and that of Iraq, Muslim Ashor had never spoken to an American. So when a live TV link-up was arranged between his school, in the Sheikh Saad area of Kut, 180km south of Baghdad, and a primary school in the United States, to let Iraq and US children talk directly to each other, the 12-year-old was an enthusiastic participant.

"It was amazing to see the American children and to have them ask about our lives here, and to hear their ideas about Iraq," he said, sitting on a wooden bench in an air-conditioned tent on a US military base about 10km from Sheikh Saad. The link-up was arranged by US forces stationed in Kut. "American schools look very good; they have special buses to pick students up; they have the internet and they have libraries. These are things we dream about." The Iraqi education system was once the most advanced in the Middle East with standards comparable to those of the western world. Years of war and sanctions from the 1980s onwards, however, brought about a sharp decline. The Shiite-dominated south was among the areas to suffer most from chronic neglect, which accelerated sharply during the 1990s economic embargo. Kut is the administrative capital of Wasit, a province with a severe shortage of investment in education.

According to local officials there are 600 schools with 200 under construction, serving a population of almost one million. Wasit's education authorities estimate they need a total of 2,000 schools to provide a decent level of basic primary and high school education. That shortfall was underlined by last month's Iraq-America TV link-up. "The exchange between our schools was a good step towards helping us understand more about American culture and helping American children understand us," said Adnan Jassim, director at Al Antisarat school in Sheikh Saad, where Muslim Ashor is enrolled as a pupil. "It also let me see what a large gap there is between our school and American schools. "We'll need at least 10 years to begin catching up because we have a lack of experience and we're undeveloped.

"The reality is we need more and better teachers, and we need to improve the facilities, to bring computers, playing fields, science laboratories: the list is long. That will all require a lot of effort and a lot of time." Residents of Sheikh Saad said they hope the video link between their local school and the US school will be repeated, and that it will help to raise their own educational standards. "The only way things will get better is if we open up and expose our children to those who are more educated and, shall we say, more sophisticated," said Abu Taher, 43, whose son went through the local school system. "The more our children see, the more they will want to learn." That logic seemed to appeal to at least some of the two dozen Al Antisarat pupils who took part in the exercise, including Muslim Ashor. "I feel the world is opening up," he said. "Perhaps we can be friends with the American children and we could get to know them, and maybe they would be able to come and visit us and we can go to America and visit them. "The American children said that we could improve our schools and develop our education to be better and that is now my dream. I hope it is not far from us." Such sentiments are a testament to the changed security situation in Iraq, and the relative calm that prevails in Wasit, one of the safest provinces. The kind of bombings and shootings that continue to choke Mosul, Baquba and Baghdad have not taken place here. The most powerful militia group, the Mahdi Army, which once wielded significant local influence, has been disbanded and many of its members are in jail or have put down their weapons. It almost feels as if the war is over. "I'd have been happy to speak to the American students like this in the past," said 14-year-old Sahleh al Kurashi, who took part in the video exchange. "But there were militias in control of the region and they always told us that the American people want to kill Iraqis and are the enemies of Islam. "I saw with my own eyes that the American students are good and generous and that they want to help us end the problems we have now. "Maybe in the future one of the American children we spoke to will be president of America and I'll be president of Iraq, and we'll still be friends and we'll remember where we first met." [e-mail]