In her most recent example, the 8-year-old girl Rahma was hit in the head by her teacher in a school in Mosul, Nineveh Governorate. As a result of the complications of that blow, she lost the ability to walk, which paralyzed her lower limbs, according to her family.
The Iraqi Minister of Education, Ali Al-Dulaimi, pledged, by phone to the student, Rahma, that he would take care of her treatment until she was able to return to school, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Education.
The Minister of Education also directed the directors of supervision in Nineveh and the rest of the provinces, to go to schools in a field manner to direct the teaching staff to the need to protect our students and students and to deal with them in an educational and parental manner, stressing that the humanitarian Iraqi educational message will continue to occupy the first place in our work, in order to preserve Iraq’s spotless image. In the educational and scientific field, according to the Iraqi Education Statement.
This heinous incident sparked widespread anger among the parents of Iraqi students and pioneers of social networks and platforms in the country, who considered what happened “educational terrorism” against helpless young children.
They criticized the government’s handling of this crime, where about 3 weeks after its occurrence and due to the spread of news of its later occurrence on social media, the Iraqi Ministry of Education issued a statement about the incident, without taking strict punitive measures against the teacher who assaulted the girl student, who demanded By prosecuting her and not merely suspending her from work, as if she had committed a simple administrative error and had not caused a disability to a girl of the age of roses.
Commenting on the recurrence of school violence against children in Iraq, Ali Al-Baydar, the Iraqi writer and researcher, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “The rooted culture of beatings seems to have been transmitted from the community to the school in Iraq, and it indicates the immaturity of its drinkers and practitioners from the teaching and educational cadres, and their inability to carry out the tasks of education and guidance.
Although the Ministry of Education has its own strict procedures and directives, usually with regard to preventing incidents of beatings of students and insulting them by Iraqi teachers and punishing those who do so, al-Badar explains, adding: “On the other hand, there are among the teachers’ ranks who see beating and slandering as a means of education and evaluation while it is A means that is contrary to the rights of the child and human, and contributes to intimidating young students and alienating them from teachers and subsequently from the educational process.
The Iraqi researcher adds: “The entire Iraqi educational system needs deep revisions and modernization of meaning and structure, as many of its laws, laws and regulations were enacted and developed decades ago during the time of the previous regime, which were characterized by cruelty and violence and closer in their methodology to military discipline than to framing and codifying the educational and civil value process. “.
For his part, Iraqi citizen Ibrahim Ali said, in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “Unfortunately, with the prevalence of such attacks on children in schools by their teachers, we are afraid of sending our children to them, which are almost turning against what they are supposed to be from places of education and education.” .
He added: “These practices are often spread, and even only in public government schools, which suffer in general from the erosion of their infrastructure and the weakness of their teaching and administrative cadres and their inefficiency, while such shameful phenomena are few and almost non-existent in private schools, and this is why the majority of parents cannot send their children to learn in them. due to its high material cost.
Last September, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned of the consequences of extensive violence against Iraqi children, which is reaching dangerous levels, as the organization stated in its reports that 4 out of every 5 children in Iraq are subjected to violence and beatings at home or school.
UNICEF called on the Iraqi government to devote mechanisms to monitor and follow up the perpetrators of violent crimes and murders against children and bring them to trial. Children in Iraq urgently need to protect and guarantee their rights, and to provide a safe environment free of violence and appropriate to fully develop their abilities and capabilities.
The United Nations stressed that nothing justifies violence against a young child, and that this phenomenon must be prevented and curbed.
