Thursday, October 09, 2003

Well, we are trying, I guess. The St. Petersburg Times reports:

Earlier this year, American officials in Iraq contracted with two United Nations agencies to provide 72-million new textbooks for Iraqi schoolchildren to replace the old books crammed with photos and praise of Saddam Hussein.

But when Iraq's schools reopened last week, there were few, if any, revised textbooks in the classrooms.

U.S. officials said that most of the new books, which are being printed primarily on local presses, may not get to Iraqi children until sometime in November. And some books may even be delayed until next April.

In the breach, references to Hussein were crossed out by hand and decals pasted over his pictures....

About 1,000 of the country's 13,500 school buildings have been refurbished so far, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. officials say the schoolbook revision project was carried out by a committee of Iraqi teachers. The committee went through more than 500 different books, deleting such statements as "learn the instruction of the Leader and all science shall be yours."

The new Iraqi education ministry also has pledged to increase salaries for teachers. In the past, teachers were paid the equivalent of $5.33 to $13.33 a month; the new scale calls for monthly wages of $66.66 to $333.33.


At the link there's information about other aspects of the reconstruction, some of it good, more of it bad. The report is summed up in this sidebar, which begins:

Status of goals

Two months ago, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq listed hundreds of projects it wanted to accomplish by Oct. 3. When that day passed on Friday, some of the tasks were done and some were not. Here is a sampling:

SECURITY

Locate, secure and eliminate WMD.

Actual: Not yet.

Defeat internal armed threats.

Actual: Not yet....


Click the link for the rest.

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