Back to school for Iraqi children... in Jordan

AMMAN: Thousands of Iraqi children registered on Sunday to attend Jordan's already crowded state schools after the government lifted restrictions that would have admitted only those with residency permits.   

"I bought my school stationery and a bag more than a week ago in preparation for this day," said 16-year-old Ali al-Jawari, whose cash-strapped parents were in the process of moving him from a private school to a public one.   

"I'm excited to be going to a public school, I feel learning there is better for me. I will meet pupils I can really communicate with," Ali said.   

His father Dhiaa al-Jawari said he appreciated Jordan's decision to allow Iraqi pupils into state schools because "it took into consideration our humanitarian situation and economic hardship".   

The 52-year-old Sunni fled the violence in Iraq to Jordan two years ago, and spent 2,400 dollars last year to put Ali and his younger son Taha into private school.   

"Tuition in state schools will cost me only 140 dollars a year for each child," he said.   

Jawari had a thriving car dealership in Baghdad but lost it when he fled his country after receiving repeated death threats from militiamen.   

"I can no longer pay for private schools. I lost my business in Baghdad and the dangerous security situation there forced to me leave," he said, admitting he is currently moonlighting "here and there".   

According to the United Nations, around four million of Iraq's 26 million people have fled the violence, including those who left before the 2003 US-led invasion.   

An estimated 1.4 million went to Syria and 750,000 to Jordan.   

A senior education ministry official informed that up to 50,000 Iraqi pupils were expected to enroll in state schools this year after Jordan scrapped demands that they have residency permits.   

But Mohammed Akur warned that the newcomers would "definitely add more burdens to our infrastructure and operational costs," with overcrowding a major problem in schools, particularly in the capital Amman.   

Akur said the ministry was building new schools, and added that some "might have to work two shifts" because there are often as many as 50 pupils to a class.   

Jordan has said sheltering some 750,000 Iraqis who have fled the violence in their home country cost the tiny desert kingdom around one billion dollars a year, and it has urged the international community to provide more direct aid.   

Basem Janabi, a former political science professor at Baghdad university, hailed Amman's decision to open up state schools to Iraqi children.   

"We really appreciate Jordan's efforts and we are grateful, but we hope that the government will also give the children temporary residency permits," said Janabi, who also registered two of his four children in a state school.   

Last month the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the children's fund UNICEF appealed for 129 million dollars so 155,000 Iraqi children in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon could attend school in the new academic year.   

A UNHCR representative in Amman lauded Jordan's efforts and said both his agency and UNICEF will provide the authorities with text books and train teachers.   

But Peter Janssen cautioned that "the number of 50,000 students is very optimistic, very ambitious.   

"Now we need help in finding ways of getting the message out to people that they can send their children to school, because we understand that a lot of Iraqis either don't know about this or they may not trust the circumstances," he said.