Corinne Reilly at the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting on the current state of textbooks in Iraq. Students who are in the K-12 system use textbooks published decades ago. Graduate students have to purchase their books through friends in other countries. The textbook problem stems from a number of causes. Bookstore owners, frightened by the violence, are opening slowly. Delivery of books purchased online is unreliable, if not impossible. From the article:
Like so much else here, access to textbooks is improving. But progress is slow in a country with almost daily bombings, rampant government corruption and scarce electricity and clean water. “Some say books are a small matter compared to many of Iraq’s issues, but I say this is not true,” said Alaa Makki, a Sunni Muslim lawmaker who heads the Iraqi parliament’s education committee. “Without knowledge and educated people, who will solve these things?”
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