Students given access to Internet

A room full of teenage girls in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, are chatting with each other during the last five minutes of class, practicing their hard-learned English. In the classroom next door, the same number of teenage boys are designing logos to put on posters they will make to explain computer projects. After a 15-minute break, the two groups switch - the girls clustering around the 10 or so computers, the boys in the English-language class. After months of planning and red tape, the al-Amal Association, an Iraq-based aid agency, has started working with a group of students chosen for their leadership abilities and their smartness. More than 40 boys and 40 girls attend the enrichment classes at the al-Amal office three days a week. Students will learn how to use the computers, correspond with teenagers in Canada and other places by Internet and sharpen their English language skills, Laith Salman, a computer teacher, told IRIN. They’ll also learn about how to deal with the conflict still going around them and other “social phenomena,” Salman said. “We want them to improve their personalities. We want them to lead society,” he explained. Football stars, doctors, artists and other professionals and heros will be brought to the classroom to show students what kinds of possibilities they have when they grow up in Iraq. “Before, we had many negative figures in society,” Salman said, laughing as he alluded to former president Saddam Hussein and the various organised crime elements working in Iraq. “Now, we will show them the good ones.” In the language class, the girls are comparing notes about the latest pop stars and shows they watch on TV. Students who appear to speak the best English said they learned it from watching a private TV channel in English before the war. During that time, families hid satellite dishes in water tanks and other rooftop devices, Sarah Jalil aged 15, whose family had a satellite, told IRIN. Under the former regime, satellite dishes were banned. Anyone caught with one could go to jail for six months. “I would watch movies and then practice what I learned with my family,” Jalil said. “Before the war, we hoped some day there would be a class like this.” But schools in Iraq only have the basics, Taysef Mohammed, 15, Jalil’s friend, told IRIN. Computers were virtually unheard of in the country just five years ago, although many families now have them, she said. “We feel so lucky to begin to have a chance to learn things we can’t learn in school,” said Mohammed. In a society where girls and women are inside more often than not, these days, the intelligence of the girls is a bit of a surprise for the teachers. Boys and girls are separated in the classes, just as they are in the public secondary school system, although they can talk to each other during breaks, according to the teachers. “I see girls are more enthusiastic for the course, because boys have the freedom to go out and move around and girls are kept inside - especially now with the bad security situation,” Salman said. “Now, they seem more creative here, more active than the boys.” Using the Internet is a special treat for the students. Many had heard about it before the war, but few actually had seen it work. Certain words and websites still appear to be blocked on a government Internet server, Awdies Awais, an engineer at al-Amal who works with the students, told IRIN. Over the past year, many students have visited the Internet cafes springing up around the capital to see what the fuss is about. Many quickly learn how to “chat” with other people across the globe on instant message services and e-mail, Awais said. “Internet was really special before. I was the only one who knew about it in my class,” said Zain al-Abdin, 16, a boy in the computer class. “Now, I’m making friends on the Internet.” As part of the classes, students are expected to share with their friends what they are learning about societal responsibilities and how to be leaders. “We want them to transfer what they learn here to other students,” English teacher Suidad Fadhil al-Janabi told IRIN. Ministry of education officials originally put restrictions on the classes, saying students could not be recruited from schools, only from neighbourhoods, and expressed concern that those who were chosen would have to deal with some religious curriculum. “At the beginning, they were very suspicious of our plans, but as soon as they saw what we were doing, they were very happy,” Salman said. Now that the ministry of education is on board with the project, al-Amal wants to expand it to more children and a larger space, said Jamal al-Jawahiri, who is overseeing the programme. Al-Amal has allocated US $25,000 for the year-long project. Other international donors, such as War Child and the Mennonite Central Committee, are paying about $60,000, al-Jawahiri said. “When we first started, we had fewer than 80 students,” Salman said. “But parents and students started hearing about the course and now we have to refuse new students - we don’t have enough room.”