Iraqi children return to school

By Jill McGivering
BBC correspondent in Baghdad

Several million Iraqi children go back to school for the start of the new academic year on Wednesday.

Many will find radical changes to their classrooms, textbooks and even the style of teaching.

Children will no longer have to praise Saddam Hussein

After a decade of international sanctions, many Iraqi schools became very run down, in desperate need of investment.

In recent months, tens of thousands of local contractors, appointed by the US-led coalition, embarked on a massive programme to rebuild and refurbish.

It is still under way, but as the new school year starts, more than 1,000 schools have been declared finished.

Saddam erased

Textbooks, too, are being overhauled.

United Nations agencies are printing more than 70 million new school books which omit references to Saddam Hussein and Baathist ideology.

In pictures: Back to school

They are not ready yet, so many schools will start this week using old textbooks - but with passages referring to the old regime simply blacked out.

Teaching methods may also be different.

Hundreds of teachers are being retrained by the US, encouraged to change from traditional rote learning to a more Western interactive style.

Children will no longer have to start the school day chanting Saddam Hussein's praises.

Security fears

But it may be hard for teachers to explain to children why the man they were taught to revere a matter of months ago is now being described as a violent dictator.

Or how to answer their questions about why the US-led coalition now controls their country.

It also seems likely many children will not attend at all. Some parents say they are so worried about the security situation, they will keep their children at home.

Longer-term changes, like the drafting of a new curriculum, will also have to address some divisive issues, for example, to what extent Islam should be taught in the classroom.