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In Pictures: Iraqi schools closed to students

Children are unable to begin classes as thousands of displaced Iraqis seek shelter in schools across the Kurdish region.

A public park in Ainkawa, Erbil, where displaced Iraqis are living in camps. The mass influx of people fleeing areas overrun by the Islamic State group to Kurdish Iraq has caused a shortage of shelters. People with nowhere else to go have sought refuge in schools, churches, mosques, unfinished buildings and public parks.
By Kira Walker
Published On 2 Sep 2014

Erbil, Iraq – Over 2000 schools in Iraq are sheltering displaced families who have fled areas overrun by the Islamic State group. At least half of the schools in Kurdish Iraq – over 700 – are home to those who have fled, threatening to delay the start of the upcoming academic year and prompting the Ministry of Education to declare an emergency earlier this month.

UNICEF reports that in addition to the estimated 190,000 displaced Iraqi children seeking shelter in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, a delay to the school year would also affect the education of hundreds of thousands of host-community children and approximately 54,000 Syrian refugee children living in Kurdish Iraq.

Salama Alhussein, from the Iraqi Ministry of Education, says the ministry has not yet announced a delay to the anticipated September 10 start.

In Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, Bashdar Sarbaz, director of educational planning for the Ministry of Education, says that while the ministry has not yet made an official announcement regarding the school year, in reality they are facing difficulties. “In Erbil and Sulaymaniyah there aren’t many schools occupied, but in Duhok, where nearly all of the schools are occupied, it’s going to be very difficult to move that many people by September 10,” Sarbaz explains.

The humanitarian situation is severe in Kurdish Iraq’s Dohuk governorate. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports there are over 400,000 internally displaced people, and 640 schools are full to the brim with displaced families.

Aram Shakaramm, Iraq deputy country director of Save the Children, told Al Jazeera that a lot of schools will not start on September 10 as scheduled. Shakaram says there are plans for a number of new camps to be built across Kurdish Iraq, which, hopefully, will ease the pressure on schools. “The sooner we can get children back to school, learning and moving on with their lives, the better.”

In early September, UNICEF plans to bring together the central Iraqi and Kurdish Ministries of Education, along with the education directorates of the five most affected Iraqi governorates (Anbar, Diyala, Ninewa, Salahadin and Kirkuk) to discuss the occupation of schools, says UNICEF Iraq’s external relations officer Karim Elkorany.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, both community residents and those who have fled say they have been left in the dark about the impending school year. “I talked to the director of my children’s school and he had no idea when school would start. He told me to ask the ministry of education,” says Mazen Farouq, father of two children who are enrolled in Salaama Public School in Ainkawa, Erbil.

After fleeing Mosul in mid-July, Yousef Yacoub and his family sought shelter at Salaama Public School. He says people living there have been told they can stay until October 1. “We don’t know where we can go after. No one tells us anything.”

Some private schools in Kurdish Iraq, which are not sheltering the internally displaced, have delayed the start of the school year. Others have not and will open their doors to students at the beginning of September.

Food distribution at Ishtar Public School in Erbil, which houses Yazidi families from Sinjar. NGOs and local authorities are scrambling to establish alternative shelters so that schools and the academic year can begin as soon as possible.
Men sleep on a street outside an overflowing church courtyard in Ainkawa. Conditions are difficult, with daytime temperatures soaring as high as 48 degrees Celsius.
Mazen(***)s two children are enrolled at Salaama Public School in Ainkawa. Malak, 7, will be going into his second year while Maryam, 6, will be entering her first year of primary school.
"My kids don(***)t understand what’s going on. They(***)ve been on summer holiday, playing and having fun," says Mazen.
Classrooom desks are used in makeshift kitchens at Salaama Public School in Erbil. More than 100 families are living at the school. Two to four families crowd each classroom while others sleep in corridors.
Aryas Hodeda says his 13 year old son Saleh excelled in all subjects at his former school in Sinjar and is devastated that he will not be able to attend school.
Children from Qaraqosh bring tomatoes to their families after a produce truck passes by Salaama Public School. Half of the 1.45 million Iraqis that have been displaced by violence since January are children.
Daily tasks, such as cleaning and washing, are shared between the over 400 people living in Salaama Public School.
Yousef(***)s wife Ni(***)am with their two children, Loord, 7, and nine month old Majid in their room at Salaama Public School. "We thank god we(***)re here. We(***)re so much better off than those living in a tent," says Yousef.
In their old life in Mosul, Yousef and Ni(***)am were secondary school teachers. "I cannot let my children grow up without an education," Yousef says.
"She told me through tears, (***)Father I must go to school(***), after seeing her cousins, who are enrolled at a private school in Erbil, receive their new school uniforms," says Yousef. Private schools in Erbil carry an expensive price tag and are out of the question for many families.