[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 15, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H6551]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    EDUCATING IRAQ'S FUTURE LEADERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, most of our Nation's students are on summer 
vacation right now. They are enjoying camp, swimming, playing, or just 
hanging out and relaxing. Some are even earning a few dollars at a 
summer job.
  For their counterparts in Iraq, the school break is just now 
beginning. Iraqi students have just wrapped up their final exams. This 
year we learned was very different from last year's exam period. 
According to reports from relief organizations and a recent article in 
the Christian Science Monitor, last year's tests were marred by 
unprecedented incidents of mass cheating, bribe-taking, and sheer 
lawlessness. In many places, Mr. Speaker, last year we heard that 
militiamen and insurgents strolled casually into exam centers and 
forced officials, often at gun point, to allow cheating.
  Parents feared sending their children to exams. The challenges of 
just getting to school, making it past militia roadblocks and suicide 
attackers was one thing; making it through a day full of cheating, 
intimidation and violence was quite another. One test proctor 
overseeing a geography high school exam at Baghdad University told the 
Christian Science Monitor, ``Last year the outlaws took advantage of 
the brittle security situation and caused unprecedented chaos during 
the final exams. It was truly a mark of utter shame on our education 
system as a whole.''
  Another Iraqi reported that militiamen stormed into an exam hall to 
force proctors to let students cheat. When one headmaster objected, he 
was briefly kidnapped and threatened by the militiamen until he 
relented.
  Students were woefully underprepared for their exams, Mr. Speaker. 
One observer told the media that anguished-looking girls came out of 
the exam room complaining not only about how difficult the questions 
were, but also about their preparation. They said it is not fair, we 
didn't even have a chemistry teacher all year, and we are being tested 
on chemistry.
  This year, thankfully, it appears that the neighborhoods are much 
more secure. An overwhelming presence of military and law enforcement 
appears to have kept interfering forces at bay during the testing. The 
situation is still not ideal, however, because many students have to 
travel great distances daily. But generally, the situation is somewhat, 
if not a great deal, better.
  Iraq has a rich educational history, Mr. Speaker. Until the years of 
the first Gulf War, Iraq led the region in academics and produced 
internationally recognized leaders in the fields of law, medicine and 
theology. But the challenges are still great.
  The Ministry of Human Rights reported at the end of June that 340 
academics were killed in and around Iraq from 2005 to 2007. And 
according to the Ministry of Education, 28 percent of Iraq's 17 year 
olds in the center and southern part of the country took their final 
exams in the year 2007, but only 40 percent passed. That was a decrease 
from 2006 when the figure was 60 percent passing.
  We already know that this administration gets a failing grade on its 
Iraq policy. However, we don't need to condemn a generation of Iraq's 
future leaders. We should be investing in schools, not in tanks and 
guns. We must redeploy our troops and military contractors from Iraq, 
and we must work peacefully to help with their reconciliation. Mr. 
Speaker, let's send the children to school, not to war.

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