Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi signed agreements last week with two Chinese companies, Power China and Sino Tech, to build 1,000 schools in the country within the next two years, according to an Iraqi News Agency story citing Housing Ministry official Hassan Mejaham, The Arab Weekly reported on Dec. 20. Mejaham reported that Iraq would pay for the project using its oil products.
Here again, China is stepping forward to rebuild from the rubble left by decades of the United States betraying its own history to impose British imperial war policies on others. The Arab Weekly quotes UNICEF on Iraq’s educational disaster: “Decades of conflict and under-investment in Iraq have destroyed what used to be the best education system in the region…. One in every two schools is damaged and needs rehabilitation.” In a country of 40 million people, “there are close to 3.2 million school-aged Iraqi children out of school.”
Iraq’s government estimates that the country needs 8,000 schools. According to Mejaham, the first of the 1,000 schools are to be delivered within a year, after work begins “very soon.” An additional 3,000 schools will be constructed in the second phase, with 4,000 more to be built in a final phase. According to Global Times, agreement was reached last November for China to help build 7-8,000 schools. Now that agreement has been concretized.
