Photo By Luis Delgadillo | School children of the al-Menahay Primary School pose for a photo at their makeshift...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Sgt. David Turner
2nd Brigade Combat Team 3rd Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – For school children in the south Baghdad area, getting an education has become a difficult, even dangerous prospect in recent years. In some cases, supplies were short and facilities were in disrepair. Sometimes the teachers weren't there. In a few cases, the schools themselves were all but gone.
The area where the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division arrived in June 2007, had long been an insurgent strong hold, with many villages controlled by al-Qaida terrorists who kept children, especially girls, from attending school. With no coalition or Iraqi security force presence, local schools suffered the same fate as many farms and businesses in the area. They were looted and damaged, even becoming battlegrounds.
"About two years ago, the Ministry of Education ordered all of the teachers out of the rural areas because the security situation was so bad," said Capt. Trista Mustaine, education adviser to the Baghdad-7 embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, which works with the 2nd BCT to rebuild the local infrastructure and economy.
The area is now more secure than it has been in years, with Iraqi army and Iraqi police establishing a presence and preparing to hold the gains made by the 2nd BCT, which is scheduled to redeploy in July.
In addition to repairing critical infrastructure and breathing new life into the damaged economy, the 2nd BCT and Baghdad-7 ePRT have spent millions to keep schools open and make it possible for children to pursue an education.
With the school year now over for children in the area, it's a chance for workers to complete renovations and building projects throughout the 2nd BCT's area of operation.
Perhaps the most intense activity is in the "Banshee" area of operation, which belongs to the Soldiers of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery. There are currently four school improvement projects in their sector, with a combined estimated cost of more than $1 million.
When Soldiers of Battery B, 1-9 Field Artillery, came into the area, they set up Joint Security Site W-1 at the site of al-Hader School, said Capt. Richard Aaron, battery commander.
"When we first moved into the AO in June of last year, it was initially going to be a temporary patrol base," said Aaron, a native of Middleboro, Mass. "School was out of session and it was a secure building we could use."
The nearby al-Menahay School was occupied by al-Qaida insurgents, who eventually destroyed it using homemade explosives. Students of Tatwir School suffered worse.
"[Al-Qaida] emplaced [improvised explosive devices] in that school, thinking Americans would come there to occupy it," Aaron said. "We cleared that school earlier this year. We removed multiple IEDs. An [explosives clearing] robot was lost trying to clear that school as well.
"They had littered the school [with IEDs], booby trapped some of the doors inside and [placed IEDs] around the outside of the school. A small child stepped on a pressure plate. She ended up being okay," he said.
With no school house to go to, students of al-Menahay School took classes in a private home, with local volunteers serving as teachers.
"A lot of them were former teachers, some without credentials, but who had been teaching in the past. They had the books and they just volunteered to help out," Aaron said.
Mustaine said in the absence of licensed teachers, volunteers have helped out in other areas, too. Like many other Iraqi public servants, they often worked for long periods without being paid. In some cases local Sons of Iraq paid them.
As for the al-Hader School, a new school is being constructed to replace it, just 200 meters from the original site. The estimated cost for that project is $500,000. In total, more than $2.2 million has been spent so far on schools from Commander's Emergency Response Program funds administered by the 2nd BCT, with another $500,000 worth of projects currently funded.
Although reconstruction costs have largely been provided by coalition forces up to now, the Iraqi government is taking up the task and helping to get local schools repaired and reopened before the next school year begins.
In Sayifiyah, the Maahmoon School being renovated with Government of Iraq funding from the Baghdad Provincial Council, the only school in the 2nd BCT's area to receive such funding. Budget execution for projects has been a problem for Iraqi government ministries across the board, said Mustaine. Fortunately, a new line of funding has come through for schools in the form of I-CERP, which uses Iraqi money within the framework of coalition CERP.
"I think the biggest success in capacity building is I-CERP," said Mustaine. "It's Iraqi money, filtered through the U.S. Treasury and implemented jointly by coalition forces and the GoI. It's a step toward building capacity and gets [the GoI] spending their own money. Currently we have eight schools funded with I-CERP and three pending funding."
I-CERP is currently providing more than $980,000 for school projects in the area.
At the al-Alemia School in Arab Jabour, I-CERP is helping to finish what coalition and community efforts started. Like Tatwir School, al-Alemia School was damaged by insurgents, who looted equipment and left behind IEDs. Within days of clearing out the school, students were back in class, but lots of work remained to be done, said Capt. James Anthony, commander of Company C, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment.
"We did some minor repairs, just to keep the school going, fixing windows and doors," said Anthony, a native of Byhalia, Miss. Former teachers came back to teach, working for free at first, until the MoE stepped up to cover their salaries.
After getting teachers paid, the next big challenge was getting the extensive damage repaired. I-CERP committed $445,000 to pay for the work, and repairs are scheduled to be completed in August. Anthony said it has been a community effort from the start.
"One of the great things about the contractor working at this school is that he has taken a lot of workers from the area." Anthony said. "You have a lot of people from the community actually working on the school that their children attend."
As Aaron and his Soldiers near redeployment in July, he feels good about the work they have done.
"We've made a huge impact on the community with the school, and with other projects we've done," he said.
Now that the area is safe again and schools are getting the attention they need, the GoI is ready to re-invest in a more significant way.
"As of about a month ago, the Ministry of Education has ordered the teachers to return to their rural schools," Mustaine said. Thanks to gains made by the 2nd BCT, she said, government officials can work freely in the area to make sure their schools have what they need to teach the children.
"Our goal is to provide accessible education for everyone. We have started the ball rolling and the GoI will keep it going in the future," she said.
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2008 12:36 |
| Story ID: | 20440 |
| Location: | ISKANDARIYAH, IQ |
| Web Views: | 242 |
| Downloads: | 224 |
This work, Teachers prepare to return to South Baghdad schools, by SGT David Turner, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
