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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (341911)	7/2/2007 7:29:13 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575767

Innovation in Education! Militias, bribes tip scales as Iraqis take final exams Graduation tests for middle and high schools end Tuesday. By Sam Dagher \| Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor (Sounds like they've implemented the Republican model that Bush used in HIS school days! No connected student left behind..) Baghdad - Ihab Thaer couldn't afford the bribes some of his friends at his central Baghdad high school paid for a preview of final exam questions. He wishes instead that he could have benefited from a different tip to the scale: a visit by militias to force proctors to let him cheat. Over the past two weeks, Iraq has seen an unprecedented level of interference by militias and insurgents as students have taken national exams for middle and high school diplomas. Cheating and bribing have also marred the process – as have threats by parents to uncooperative teachers. Iraq's schools and universities were once the pride of the Arab world. But one expert says that what has happened inside exam halls, along with the plummeting standards of the education system, are further symptoms of the systematic unraveling of Iraqi society and its institutions. "There is real terror going on at some of these exams," says Asma Jamil, a sociologist at Baghdad University, adding that students feel that Iraq's instability gives them the right to cheat, while armed groups want to win the sympathy of the public. "It's a result of greater social decay," she says, "and it feeds it by graduating a generation of aggressive, sometimes extremist, students who have very little capability for critical thinking." The Ministry of Education recently solicited solutions to the problem from her and other experts, she says, but that there has been little follow-up. "We are witnessing," she says, "the complete collapse of the education system." Education Minister Khudayer al-Khuzaie says that all the talk of violations at exam centers were rumors and part of a smear campaign. "This is all part of a scheme to undermine the political process in general and the ministry in particular," Mr. Khuzaie said in an interview, in reference to efforts by some Sunni parties to bring down the Shiite-led government. He says that the ministry is investigating the reports and that he is prepared to offer rewards for proof of cheating. According to Ms. Jamil, the 1970s and '80s saw great strides that set Iraq apart in the region. Public education and mandatory elementary schooling were enshrined in the constitution, and a literacy drive in the '70s was highly effective in building on gains made in the previous three decades, particularly among girls. .... csmonitor.com