EDUCATION AND WELFARE
Education
The impact of government policies on the class structure and
stratification patterns can be imputed from available statistics on
education and training as well as employment and wage structures. Owing to
the historic emphasis on the expansion of educational facilities, the
leaders of the Ba'ath Party and indeed much of Iraq's urban middle class
were able to move from rural or urban lower-class origins to middle and
even top positions in the state apparatus, the public sector, and the
society at large.
This social history is confirmed in the efforts of the
government to generalize opportunities for basic education throughout the
country. Between 1976 and 1986, the number of primary-school students
increased 30 percent; female students increased 45 percent, from 35 to 44
percent of the total. The number of primary-school teachers increased 40
percent over this period. At the secondary level, the number of students
increased by 46 percent, and the number of female students increased by 55
percent, from 29 to 36 percent of the total. Baghdad, which had about 29
percent of the population, had 26 percent of the primary students, 27
percent of the female primary students, and 32 percent of the secondary
students.
Education was provided by the government through a centrally
organized school system. In the early 1980s, the system included a
six-year primary (or elementary) level known as the first level. The
second level, also of six years, consisted of an intermediate-secondary
and an intermediate-preparatory, each of three years. Graduates of these
schools could enroll in a vocational school, one of the teacher training
schools or institutes, or one of the various colleges, universities, or
technical institutes.
The number of students enrolled in primary and secondary
schools was highest in the central region and lowest in the north,
although the enrollment of the northern schools was only slightly lower
than that of the south. Before the war, the government had made
considerable gains in lessening the extreme concentration of primary and
secondary educational facilities in the main cities, notably Baghdad.
Vocational education, which had been notoriously inadequate in Iraq,
received considerable official attention in the 1980s. The number of
students in technical fields has increased threefold since 1977, to over
120,090 in 1986.
The Ba'ath regime also seemed to have made progress since the
late 1960s in reducing regional disparities, although they were far from
eliminated and no doubt were more severe than statistics would suggest.
Baghdad, for example, was the home of most educational facilities above
the secondary level, since it was the site not only of Baghdad University,
which in the academic year 1983-84 (the most recent year for which
statistics were available in early 1988) had 34,555 students, but also of
the Foundation of Technical Institutes with 34,277 students, Mustansiriya
University with 11,686 students, and the University of Technology with
7,384 students. The universities in Basra, Mosul, and Irbil, taken
together, enrolled 26 percent of all students in higher education in the
academic year 1983-84.
The number of students seeking to pursue higher education in
the 1980s increased dramatically. Accordingly, in the mid-1980s the
government made plans to expand Salah ad Din University in Irbil in the
north and to establish Al Rashid University outside Baghdad. The latter
was not yet in existence in early 1988 but both were designed ultimately
to accommodate 50,000 students. In addition, at the end of December 1987,
the government announced plans to create four more universities: one in
Tikrit in the central area, one each at Al Kufah and Al Qadisiyah in the
south, and one at Al Anbar in the west. Details of these universities were
not known.
With the outbreak of the war, the government faced a
difficult dilemma regarding education. Despite the shortage of wartime
manpower, the regime was unwilling to tap the pool of available university
students, arguing that these young people were Iraq's hope for the future.
As of early 1988, therefore, the government routinely exempted students
from military service until graduation, a policy it has adhered to
rigorously. This policy, however, has likely caused resentment among the
poorer classes and those forced to serve multiple tours at the front
because of continuing manpower shortages.
Health
In the 1980s, almost all medical facilities continued to be
controlled by the government, and most physicians were Ministry of Health
officials. Curative and preventive services in the government-controlled
hospitals and dispensaries and the services of government physicians were
free of charge. The ministry included the directorates of health,
preventive medicine, medical supplies, rural health services, and medical
services. The inspector general of health, under the ministry, was charged
with the enforcement of health laws and regulations. Private medical
practice and private hospitals and clinics were subject to government
supervision. In each province Ministry of Health functions were carried
out by a chief medical officer who, before the war, frequently had a
private practice to supplement his government salary. Provincial medical
officers were occupied mainly with administrative duties in hospitals,
clinics, and dispensaries. The work of medical officers in the rural areas
before the war was seriously curtailed by lack of transportation.
One of the most serious problems facing the Ministry of
Health in the prewar period was its shortage of trained personnel. The
shortage was accentuated by the fact that most medical personnel tended to
be concentrated in the major cities, such as Baghdad and Basra. Physicians
trained at government expense were required to spend four years in the
public health service, but they strongly resisted appointments to posts
outside the cities and made every effort to return to Baghdad.
In 1983, the latest year for which statistics were available
in early 1988, Baghdad Governorate, which had about 29 percent of the
population, had nearly 37 percent of the country's hospital beds, 42
percent of the government clinics, and 38 percent of the paramedical
personnel. The increasing number of clinics in the provinces, however,
brought some rudimentary health care within reach of the rural population.
At the same time, given the unsettled conditions in the Kurdish areas, it
was likely that health care in the Northern provinces had deteriorated
since the start of the war.
Published information concerning sanitation and endemic
diseases was scanty. Reportedly in the mid-1980s Iraq had a high incidence
of trachoma, influenza, measles, whooping cough, and tuberculosis. Prior
to the war, poor sanitation and polluted water sources were principal
factors in the spread of disease. A large percentage of the population
lived in villages and towns that have been along irrigation canals and
rivers polluted with human and animal wastes. These waterways, along with
the stagnant pools of water that sometimes constitute the village
reservoir, were the major sources of drinking water and of water for
bathing, laundering, and washing food. The periodic flooding of rivers
contaminated water supplies and spread waterborne diseases.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries serve
as water sources for Baghdad and some of the major provincial towns. Irbil
and As Sulaymaniyah, located in the northern mountains, have adequate
supplies of spring water. In Basra, Mosul, and Kirkuk the water is stored
in elevated tanks and chemically treated before distribution. In Baghdad
the water is filtered, chlorinated, and piped into homes or to communal
fountains located throughout the city. In the smaller towns, however, the
water supply is unprotected and is only rarely tested for portability.
Welfare
Iraq, with its socialist economy, pays considerable attention
to welfare. This regard for social benefits has been increased by the war.
No statistics were available in early 1988 by which to judge the scope of
benefits paid by the government to its servicemen and their families.
Nonetheless, journalistic reports indicated that martyrs' benefits--for
the families of war dead-- and subsidies for young men who volunteer for
service tended to be extremely generous. A family that had lost a son in
the fighting could expect to be subsidized for life; in addition, it was
likely to receive loans from the state bank on easy terms and gifts of
real estate.
Minimal information was available in early 1988 concerning
social welfare coverage. The most recent published data was that for 1983,
when the government listed 824,560 workers covered by social security. In
addition, pensions were paid to retirees and disabled persons as well as
compensation to workers for maternity and sick leaves.
