Iraqi Education Ministry denies school delay linked to coalition withdrawal

BAGHDAD — The Education Ministry has denied that its three-week postponement of the school year is connected to security plans, the weapons file or the end of the international coalition mission on Sept. 30, saying the timetable was driven by examinations.

“We categorically deny any connection between the postponement decision and security plans or the security situation,” spokesperson Karim al-Sayyid told AlAwla TV. The year had been set to start on Sept. 20 on the basis of “circumstances that did not match later developments,” he said. Second-round examinations began on Tuesday and run to Sept. 24, and a comprehensive entry and special examination round runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 10 — the day before schools now open.

The postponement also followed requests from parliament’s education committee, he said, through its chairwoman Zuleikha Elias, “based on appeals from families, in addition to appeals directly related to teaching staff over the deterioration of some schools, electricity cuts and high temperatures.” Recovering textbooks from students sitting second-round exams was another factor: the ministry relies on returned books for about 80% of its curriculum supplies.

The delay had prompted speculation among parents and school administrators about whether it was tied to what happens around Sept. 30, when the coalition mission ends and the disarmament deadline falls. Other claims circulating linked it to renewed conflict involving Iran and the United States, possible American economic measures, shortages of money for textbook printing and maintenance, and classrooms without cooling. The ministry rejected all of them.

Sayyid said the ministry may also revise the timing of midyear examinations and the spring break after the Cabinet decided that governorate holidays would be set centrally.

More than 12 million pupils and students attend school in federal Iraq. Baghdad has been around 42°C this week and Basra about 45°C. Schools in the Kurdistan Region open on Sept. 20 as planned, with around 1.8 million students taught by more than 161,000 teachers in 7,567 schools last year. The Region suspended in-person classes for about a month in late February and March and moved teaching online during the regional conflict, and several other governorates suspended classes for varying periods.