Iraqi Educator Shares His Hope for Iraq's Future

Imagine walking into a university and having everything—chairs, books, office supplies, and computers—gone, many students and faculty have fled the area to find other opportunities, and a new semester is about to begin in 10 days. For many U.S. educators, the prospect of an education system lacking basic necessities and professors is unreal. But, for HGSE Visiting Scholar, the former Iraqi Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Tahir Al-Bakaa, rebuilding universities from practically nothing is the reality of a war-worn Iraq.

In 2003, when Al-Bakaa was elected president of Al Mustansiriya University on the day the U.S. declared major war operations in Iraq complete, starting over—after nearly 20 years of war and embargo—was no easy feat. “Getting the people, faculty, students, and staff excited about the university was one of the harshest tests of my life,” Al-Bakaa says. Despite the challenge, Al-Bakaa poured himself wholeheartedly into the education system that had given him so much over his lifetime.

During the past two years, Al-Bakaa has accomplished a great deal. He was elected as minister of higher education in 2004 and also played an important role in the drafting of Iraq’s new constitution. But the past several months have taken Al-Bakaa far from his war-torn country, in distance if not in spirit. Al-Bakaa has spent a year in residence at the Ed School as a Scholar at Risk, a program which defends human rights of persecuted educators. Al-Bakaa has spent the past year researching his country’s education system, networking with fellow academics, and lecturing about his country’s future. A future that relies heavily on not only politics but the reconstruction of the country’s education system, he says.

War-torn Country

Al-Bakaa was born in Thikar, in southern Iraq, in 1950. At a young age, he became interested in history—an interest that would guide his career. In 1975, Al-Bakaa moved to Baghdad, completing his undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. programs at Baghdad University. He also developed an interest in politics.

By 1983, Al-Bakaa took a job teaching in the history department at Al Mustansiriyana University. At the same time, Iraq’s political troubles were just beginning.

A former active member of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party, Al-Bakaa left politics in 1991 because he felt Hussein was leading the country toward disaster. While publically severing ties to Ba’athists, he nonetheless maintained good relations with some party members to protect his position as well as his personal safety.

During the nearly 20 years of war and embargo in Iraq, Al-Bakaa’s brother was executed and his other siblings fled the area. Although he considered fleeing, government procedures for leaving the country made it difficult. “The only way I could leave would be illegal,” he says, noting that one reason he didn’t exercise that option was because it would have meant leaving his family behind.

Al-Bakaa admits that many Iraqis welcomed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 due to the cruelty of Saddam’s regime. While he and other members of the moderate intellectual and academic circles supported the regime change, they were less sanguine of the occupation of their country. Moreover, as time has gone on, “those rosy dreams that some optimistic people had that this war was going to bring evaporated, as soon as Iraq become the battlefield of terrorism,” he says.

He criticizes the U.S. for not having a better plan in place for rebuilding the country and maintaining its security. He opposes troop withdrawal until the U.S. has fulfilled a “moral obligation” to the Iraqi people.

Rebuilding Iraq’s Education System

Prior to the U.S. invasion, Iraq was a country that deeply supported education. In fact, all children received education—including graduate school—for free. By the 1970s, compulsory primary and secondary education, and adult literacy programs, were instituted.

Al-Bakaa said Iraqis have always been in favor of education and it’s considered a great honor to complete your degree. “It’s a family value for sons and daughters to complete their university studies,” Al-Bakaa says. “But, of course, accomplishing this goal has been negatively influenced by the economics and security in Iraq.”

During the Iran and Iraq war in the 1980s, the country’s attention to education began to shift. “During the war, we had a lot of dropouts from schools and universities,” Al-Bakaa says. “There was some serious damage done to the education system.”

The past 15 years of embargo and war have increasingly deteriorated the Iraqi education system. Al-Bakaa cites the loss of the best faculty members to universities in different countries, the creation of new universities that weren’t fully operational, and even the financial constraints placed on families during the embargo as responsible for hindering Iraqi’s educational growth.

The most recent war has brought additional challenges to an already faltering education system. While Al-Bakaa took his role as university president, and eventually minister, seriously, it wasn’t an easy task. Since almost everything at the university had been demolished or gone missing, initially all Al-Bakaa had were his words to invigorate a depressed faculty and students.

During a speech, Al-Bakaa says, he cried as he asked people to do menial tasks like look for stolen furniture, bring chairs to class, supply cleaning materials, help with repairs, and even bring stationery.

“I framed this [speech] as, this is your own future,” he says. “The response was amazing, and we successfully revived the university.”

While students, faculty, and staff took the initiative and brought their own supplies to school, local businesses also helped. For example, the university received 900 fans. And, since the university didn’t have the money to install the fans, students did it on their own for free.

Reflecting on these achievements, Al-Bakaa remarks that he feels proud of how well the program worked, despite [some setbacks like] not having notebooks in time for final exams that year. However, every victory was equally met with difficult decisions. For example, Al-Bakaa was forced to close 153 specialties in the graduate programs. The university could not provide fundamental facilities and resources for its students and faculty.

This initial experience is just a small piece of what Al-Bakaa considers a long road to rebuilding the education system and structure in Iraq—a reality that he said could take 10 years to complete and one that relies heavily on the political future as well.

Currently, a significant budget exists to rebuild higher education in Iraq. As minister, Al-Bakaa secured $25 million a month for reconstruction of the actual buildings. There are more than 400 ongoing projects today, he says. In addition, a recent assistantship from USAID will help reconstruct labs for chemistry, physics, and biology at the universities. But, challenges like minimal Internet access and a lack of books are still being addressed.

The restructuring program is ambitious, Al-Bakaa says, noting that he has also negotiated an $80 million longterm loan with the World Bank for higher education in Iraq to be paid back after 20 years. Beyond structural issues, there are professional development challenges.

“For 20 years, Iraq didn’t send teachers to be trained outside of the country so it was all local,” Al-Bakaa says.

Part of his role as minister includes securing $100 million a year in scholarships for Iraqis to study abroad. The program focuses specifically in the U.S. and United Kingdom. However, Al-Bakaa admits even this will be slow moving, since it will be several years before those graduates return to Iraq.

An even greater concern is the threat of violence against educators. As part of the moderate, intellectual population, academics are frequent targets during wartime.

“A lot of the political parties are fighting for control and that inflicts itself on the universities,” Al-Bakaa says. “These parties are trying to impose their beliefs on the universities.” The issues of politics and education remain closely linked in regard to the future of Iraq.

“The best investment should be one in education in Iraq,” Al-Bakaa continues. “If we manage to construct a healthy educational policy, then we’ll be able to have an influence on the way people think.”

However, if an education system fails, then Al-Bakaa fears serious repercussions on Iraq and the world. At this time, he’s not sure whether politicians in the world realize the importance of education in Iraq’s future.

“The energy of the Iraqi people and capacity to conduct research is gaining freedom,” Al-Bakaa says. “If political projects succeed, then Iraq can become a center of intellectual and academic knowledge.”

Harvard and Beyond

As a historian and educator, Al-Bakaa has studied widely throughout his country. Over his 22 years as an educator, he has published four books and 58 research papers. But Al-Bakaa says he didn’t foresee Harvard in his future. Then, he received a letter from the university notifying him of his nomination as a Scholar at Risk.

Scholars at Risk Network, launched in 2001, connects Harvard with a national network of universities and colleges committed to defending the human rights of persecuted academics worldwide by arranging temporary positions at U.S. universities. Scholars are selected by an interdisciplinary faculty committee that reviews nominations solicited from throughout the university community. Each scholar is hosted as a visiting fellow in the appropriate academic department.

Al-Bakaa says he’s not sure who nominated him, but suspects that it may have been someone he crossed paths with as minister of higher education or university president. Regardless, he says that he was excited about to his Harvard appointment and the opportunity to interact with academics here. However, the decision to come to Harvard wasn’t easy for Al-Bakaa, who had to leave his political career, his wife, and his three children behind.

“In the short term, one can look at this like a political loss,” Al-Bakaa says, pointing out that elections took place without his participation. “In the long run, if you look at it from an academic and psychological perspective, then it has its strategic benefits through the experience of learning.”

No one in Iraq was aware that he was coming to America, until he arrived in late October. Despite Iraqis’ differing perspective of America, Al-Bakaa thinks most will view his studies as a positive experience because he’s gaining more education, especially since it’s from Harvard.

During his year at HGSE, Al-Bakaa researched and wrote a study about the current education system in Iraq, a modern history publication, and two editorials about issues related to the war in his home country. He was a featured speaker in Ford Foundation Professor Fernando Reimer’s course, Education Policy & Research in Developing Countries, and at the event, Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, which was arranged by Anjali Adukia, Ed.M.’03. He has met with students, faculty and colleagues across Harvard community and other area universities, and was interviewed recently on New England Cable Network.

Iraq’s continued destabilization, and the inherent danger of returning to his home country, qualified Al-Bakaa for a Scholar Rescue Fund fellowship. The fellowship gives Al-Bakaa the opportunity for another year of study at a U.S. university. He is currently under consideration from potential host institutions in New England, as well as Washington D.C, New Jersey, and California.

The past months at HGSE have given Al-Bakaa an informed view of America’s culture, education, and people, he says. He has developed relationships with academic colleagues in anticipation of rebuilding and restructuring Iraq’s educational system. In the process, he hopes he has communicated one academic intellectual voice from Iraq to the American people—a voice of hope for his country.