The Educational Forum

ISSN: 0013-1725 (Print) 1938-8098 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/utef20

Teaching and Learning in Iraq: A Brief History

Methal R. Mohammed-Marzouk

To cite this article: Methal R. Mohammed-Marzouk (2012) Teaching and Learning in Iraq: A
Brief History, The Educational Forum, 76:2, 259-264, DOI: 10.1080/00131725.2011.653869

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2011.653869

Published online: 27 Mar 2012.

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 The Educational Forum, 76: 259–264, 2012
Copyright © Kappa Delta Pi
ISSN: 0013-1725 print/1938-8098 online
DOI: 10.1080/00131725.2012.653869

Teaching and Learning in

Iraq: A Brief History
Methal R. Mohammed-Marzouk
Fulbright Scholar/Independent Researcher of Culture and
Curriculum, Panama City, Florida, USA
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Abstract
This article investigates the Iraqi educational system and the historical,
political, religious, and cultural factors that have influenced teaching and
learning in Iraq. It is based on the author’s personal experience as an educa-
tor within the system for three decades. The author posits that Iraqi educa-
tors must establish a collaborative and cooperative endeavor for a reforma-
tion of the Iraqi educational system. The current educational system of rote
memorization has governed Iraqi schools and universities for almost one
century. The author envisions a new educational system that would be based
on new teaching and learning approaches that cultivate students’ critical
thinking skills, as well as teachers’ pedagogical skills.

Key words: banking education, curriculum and instruction, hegemony, international edu-
cation, Iraqi education, madrasa.

Teaching in Iraq uses a direct instruction approach based on lecture and memoriza-
tion. Little attention is given to meaningful memorization because teachers and graders
perceive rote memorization to be a better approach. Students are expected to memorize
their textbooks word for word. Class discussion is rarely held or encouraged by teachers.
Though math and science problem-solving based on mathematical equations or calcu-
lation is an exception to this rule, other materials in these two fields, such as theories
in geometry and analysis of chemical reactions, are still subjects of rote memorization.

Iraqi students lack the ability to think critically in their classrooms, hold class discus-
sions, write argumentative essays, and transfer their academic knowledge into real-life
situations. According to Mayer (2002, 228), the transference of new knowledge passes

Address correspondence to Methal R. Mohammed-Marzouk, P.O. Box 16352, Panama

City, FL 32406, USA. E-mail: methal.marzouk@gmail.com
 Mohammed-Marzouk

through five steps: “understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.” In the
Iraqi context, memorization does not support such transfer of knowledge; instead, it hinders
students’ cognitive ability to think critically, develop previous knowledge, or transfer new
knowledge to real-life situations.

“Banking education” has governed the Iraqi educational system for decades and con-
verted Iraqi students into depositories and receivers of knowledge from teachers and school
texts, so that they become “students incapable of critical consciousness which would result
from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world” (Freire 1970, 73). To
change this system of education, both students and teachers have to be freed from the old
educational system of “oppression” that the country has experienced for so long.

This article is a critical investigation of the history of education in Iraq based on and
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in response to my own experiences as an educator within the system. The history of rote
memorization as an educational practice in Iraq, factors that have influenced it, and its conse-
quences are investigated. I call for an educational reform movement using new pedagogical
practices that advance democratic applications in the Iraqi educational system.

Education Under Ottoman Rule

The madrasa ‘school’ was the educational system set up an Islamic educational institute
under the Ottoman Empire (1534–1917). The madrasa “evolved in the eleventh century as
a synthesis of the mosque, which has always been the center of Islamic education” (Tamari
2001, 107). In Iraq, the kuttaab (another form of madrasa), equivalent to a first- and second-
grade elementary school, prevailed in the Iraqi educational system until the middle of the
20th century. The katateeb (plural form of kuttaab) were established mainly to teach the al-
phabets and memorization of some verses from the Qur’an (Muslim’s holy book). Katateeb
teachers followed very strict rules in teaching.

The katateeb, as well as the madrasas, were supposed to follow the Islamic philosophy
in teaching and learning as stated in the Qur’an, sunna and hadith (Prophet Mohammed’s
traditions), and practiced by early Islamic society. According to the Qur’an, Muslims are
encouraged to learn through understanding, reasoning, and critical thinking as illustrated
in hundreds of verses. For instance, one can read, “Have you not seen how God makes
the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then
you see the rain come out of it” (Qur’an 24:43; The Holy Qur’an 1979) Teaching and learn-
ing in katateeb in Iraq focused on the khatim, the full recitation of the Qur’an through rote
memorization.

Knowledge in Islam is from two major influences: its religious origin, because the Qur’an
makes it clear that knowledge is a characteristic of God Himself as all knowledge comes
from Him (Qur’an 35:28); and its purpose, as there is no notion in Islam of the pursuit of
knowledge for its own sake (Halstead 2004). Knowledge in Islam, religious and secular,
must benefit individuals and society. Halstead (520) quoted the comments of Al-Ghazzali
(1058–1111), an Imam (Muslim scholar and preacher), theologian, jurist, and philosopher,
on knowledge in Islam:

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 Teaching and Learning in Iraq

Be sure that knowledge alone is no support … If a man reads a hundred thousand

scientific subjects and learns them but does not act upon them, his knowledge is of no use
to him, for its benefit lies only in being used.

Boyle (2006) argued that knowledge in Islam is of two types: revealed knowledge that
comes directly from Allah (God) as stated in the Qur’an, and knowledge that human beings
derive from reason. The revealed knowledge is unique and has a “fundamentally beneficial
nature,” whereas reason should help man understand the divine knowledge (485). In Islam,
reciting the Qur’an, or at least some short chapters (surah) of it, is the first step to learning
and understanding it. Through memorizing the Qur’an, the sacred knowledge will be
stored in the memory, especially that of a child; and with time and growth, the recited divine
knowledge will be understood and analyzed. Understanding, analyzing, and reasoning, in
Islamic study, come after memorization.
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Education in Iraq 1918 to 1980

Modern state sects’ schools were established long before the state schools were estab-
lished in Iraq: These included the Karmeleen Fathers’ School, Caldaneses School, and the
Israeli Union Schools. Thus, “[m]odern state education first appeared in Iraq at the end of
the nineteenth century,” thereby establishing secular school education (Farouk-Sluglett
and Sluglett 1991, 1413) Most of these schools were training schools for handicrafts, while
elementary education was neglected. In 1889, Medhat Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Bagh-
dad, established four elementary schools in Baghdad that became the basis for the modern
state education system in Iraq. Both state and private schools adopted rote memorization
as their basic approach to teaching and learning.

However, in 1932, upon a request from some Iraqi Christian families in Baghdad, the
Iraqi government granted permission for American Jesuits to establish the first private
American high school for boys in Baghdad: Baghdad College High School, later Al-Hikma
University (Dodge 1972). Teaching and learning at this school was based on understand-
ing, analyzing, and critical thinking through different instruction, effective pedagogy, and
additional curricula. A few years later, the Iraqi Catholic nuns established their private
elementary, middle, and high schools in Baghdad. Though they followed official curricula,
they focused more on English as a second language, teaching English from kindergarten on.
Conversely, English in public schools usually started, and still starts, at fifth grade. Teachers
at the private schools were nuns and Christian females, along with a few male teachers, all
of whom possessed teaching certificates or college degrees. These schools, together with
other good “state schools” in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra, provided Iraqi universities with
a new flux of qualified and talented high school graduates.

Higher Education in Iraq

With the return of Iraqi scholars from the West in the 1960s and 1970s, more attention
was paid to instruction in math and science. The number of Iraqi students at Baghdad
University increased rapidly. In the 1970s, Al- Mustenseriya University was established
in Baghdad, initially only for those who were already employed, but it did not have any
Higher Education qualifications. Soon after, the university began to accept applications

The Educational Forum • Volume 76 • 2012 • 261

 Mohammed-Marzouk

from thousands of employed and non-employed students for its different scientific and
humanities departments. The number of Iraqi degree holders increased rapidly. Though
direct instruction was still the educational approach, in general, teachers allowed more space
for discussions and critical thinking approaches in their classrooms.

With this developmental phase in Iraqi classrooms, a flourishing economy, industrial

revolution, and political stability in the early 1970s, a promising future gleamed in the sky
for future generations. From the mid-1970s, after the nationalization of oil, to the early 1980s,
the Iraqi educational system became the top in the Arab region. Iraqis and Iraqi scholars,
who earned both private and governmental scholarships, returned from developed countries
with practical experience and high academic qualifications. Those who studied in Britain,
France, Germany, and Russia ran all departments at various Iraqi universities. Education
became free for all Iraqis at all levels, including graduate and even post-graduate studies.
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Employees were encouraged to apply for graduate studies, taking two to four years paid
leave with permission. In a United Nations report issued in October 1991, Iraq was described
as “rapidly approaching the standards of developed countries with an elaborate public
health care and educational system, modern telecommunication network, 24 electrical
power plants, and sophisticated water treatment facilities and potable water for the large
majority of the population” (Neshat 2003, 57).

Political Agendas and Education in Iraq (1980–2003)

In 1969, the Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party (BASP) came to power in the government and
nationalized Al-Hikma University, then Baghdad College High School in 1970, and later
the nun’s private schools. Gradually, the government established a new political agenda
to manipulate the educational system and convert it into a major instrument of oppres-
sion. In the 1980s, university professors, teachers, and students were obliged to join the
BASP and were gradually indoctrinated by Saddam Hussein’s ideologies through weekly
meetings. A new approach of “banking education,” for both school material and Saddam
Hussain’s speeches and writings, was applied and practiced in Iraqi classrooms. Saddam
Hussain’s texts became the core mandatory material for students to learn. Students on all
levels, from pre-K to post-graduate, had to learn by heart (rote memorize) all, or most, of
these essays and lectures.

The new system of “banking education” created a new generation of Iraqi students with
a “fatalist perception of their situation” (Freire 1970, 81), and it “anesthetized and inhibited
their creative power and intentionality of consciousness” (85). A “culture of silence” (30) was
created, and later cultivated through employing thousands of Iraqi students and teachers as
agents of the regime to spy on classmates, students’ gatherings, co-workers, and professors.
Hundreds of teachers and students lost their lives simply because they expressed their opin-
ions or commented on a specific educational practice or policy in their classrooms. According
to Slattery (2006, 38), “hegemony (domination) in this sense is indoctrination and manipula-
tion, and it can affect classrooms when a teacher does not encourage or allow students to
question prevailing values, attitudes, historical interpretations, and social practices.”

Oppression in Iraq was practiced as a hierarchy, with Saddam Hussein at the top
and students and children at the bottom. Teachers fluctuated between the roles of being

262 • The Educational Forum • Volume 76 • 2012

 Teaching and Learning in Iraq

“oppressed” by the regime and being the “oppressors” of their students. In the words of
Paulo Freire (1970, 48), “the oppressed suffer from the duality which has established itself
in their innermost being.”

Under the rule of Saddam Hussein (1979–2003), Iraq was thrown into consecutive
wars over three decades (1980-2003). After his invasion of Kuwait, Iraq was put under
an embargo (1991–2003), which brought economic crisis to the country. Teachers’ salaries
decreased from $300 per month to less than $3 per month. The vast majority of teachers
and university instructors started tutoring their school students privately, and accepting
gratuities, bakhsheesh, in exchange for passing scores. Thousands of teachers and univer-
sity professors fled the country for better living conditions. Education in Iraq entered a
dark age.
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Aspiration for Educational Reform

Educators strive to develop educational approaches that better serve society. John
Dewey (1897, 88) noted, “I believe that much of the present education fails because it
neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life.” What
makes education even more complex is the fact that it cannot be isolated and “protected”
from the influence of factors other than the teachers, students, and the texts. Alfred N.
Whitehead (1929, 5) asserted that “when you analyze in the light of experience the central
task of education, you find that its successful accomplishment depends on a delicate ad-
justment of many variable factors. The reason is that we are dealing with human minds,
and not with dead matter.”

A movement toward reforming the Iraqi educational system is essential to empower

not only students to “liberate themselves and their oppressors as well” (Freire 1970, 44),
but also their teachers. Iraqi students must be encouraged to think critically and evalu-
ate their learning process, curricula, teachers, and even social and political agendas and
practices. The teacher’s role must become that of a facilitator of their student’s learning,
such that “facilitators of learning see themselves as resources for learning, rather than as
didactic instructors who have all the answers” (Ross-Gordon 2002, 28). Windschitl (2002,
135) argued that new ways of presenting and applying the act of teaching may include, for
example, “co-constructing knowledge with students, acting as conceptual change agents,
mentoring apprentices through the zone of proximal development, and supporting a com-
munity of learners.”

Through dialogue as “ways of knowing” that “characterize epistemological relation-

ship,” a new era in education and student-teacher relationships in Iraq must be established
(Freire 1970, 17). This practice will encourage students to discuss other classrooms’ practices,
activities, curricula, teacher–student relationships, instructors’ performances, and, above
all, social and political practices in their country and abroad. They will start to realize their
role as free citizens capable of participating in building a democratic Iraq, not only in their
classrooms, but also through other social and political avenues.

The Educational Forum • Volume 76 • 2012 • 263

 Mohammed-Marzouk

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