Forty-four exemplary schools to be built in Kirkuk

Forty-four exemplary schools are to be built in Kirkuk as part of the Iraqi national project to build exemplary schools throughout Iraq.

The 44 schools will be provided for Kirkuk districts and towns, including the district of Daquq and Hawija, and the sub-districts of Zab, Riyadh, Pirde, Laylan, and Taza.

The project will be built by China's Sinotech company under the direct supervision of the General Secretariat of the Iraqi Council of Ministers. Kirkuk education has also announced that the land is ready for the construction of the 44 schools.

Sabah Sheikh Habib, an MP of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told PUKmedia that "they are trying to allocate some of these schools for Kurdish education in the city, and at the same time they have asked the relevant authorities to include the Kurdistan Region in the project.

Two deals were signed in December last year between Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi and Power China, to build 679 schools and Sinotech the remaining 321.

Despite being rich in oil, Iraq has suffered for decades from crumbling infrastructure because of successive wars and endemic corruption.

The country needs a total of 8,000 schools to fill the gap in the education sector, according to Iraqi housing ministry official, Hassan Mejaham.

A second phase of the project will see the construction of an additional 3,000 schools, with 4,000 more to be built in the final phase.

According to UNICEF, decades of conflict and under-investment in Iraq have destroyed what used to be the best education system in the region, and one in every two schools is damaged and needs rehabilitation.



Reported by Azad Shukur
PUKmedia