Effect of Embargo on Social and Educational Situation

According to Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the child and the world Declaration on Children in the 1990s the States Parties recognize the right of the child to free and comprehensive education. In Para (E) of Item First of the same article they commit themselves to take measures to encourage regular attendance in schools and reduce drop-out rates.

In the social field Article (15) of the Declaration calls for providing opportunity for all children to discover them environment through the families and other bodies concerned with their welfare. The children should also be prepared to shoulder responsibility in a free society and to encourage them since early years to participate in the cultural life of their society.

When investigating the social and educational implications related to these articles on the Iraqi children through interviewing a sample of these children and their head-teachers in schools, the following social and educational phenomenon have been revealed.

The findings are listed from top to bottom according to their statistical arrangement and intensity, as shown in table No. 5.

1. Child Labour

   According to Article 32 of the convention on the Rights of the Child, the states Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. However, the economic embargo has lowered the living standard of the families of the children,

   Forcing these families to push their children to work after school hours and during holidays.

   This problem has ranked top of the social and educational problems, which were intensified as a result of the embargo. The intensity of the problem increased by 208% over the situation before the embargo. The weighted average which was 21.4 rose to 44.7 after the embargo with a statistical significance at 0.1 level where the value of Chi-Square was 85.35.

   The ages of these children were between 6 and 15 years and the average weekly income of those who engage in work is between 5 and 50 Iraqi Dinars as shown in Table No. 4.

   Some of the children are engaged in hard work not compatible with their age, while the majority are engaged in easy work in the service sector such as shoe-polishing, selling cigarettes or carrier bags. Obviously working in the streets at this tender age is an insult to the child’s human dignity. These practices would in one way or another prejudice their health and education and interferes with their physical, mental or moral development.

   These children are likely to mix with other people of older age and learn bad habits from them, and they in turn would transfer such bad habits to their schools and their schools mates through what is called “ behavior contraction”.

   On the other hand, the time which the children spend in such jobs should be dedicated for their rest after their school day. The circumstances which force the Iraqi children to work after school hours because of the pressures brought about by the economic embargo are in contradiction with what the States Parties to the Convention on the rights of the child have agreed upon.

   According to Article 31 of this Convention, these countries recognize the right of the child to rest, have spare time and practice the games and activities which are suitable for his age. A child should also participate freely in the cultural life and in the arts.

   Para 2 of this Article provides that the States Parties to the Convention respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in the cultural and artistic life and provide a suitable opportunity for the cultural, artistic and recreational activities. It is obvious that the countries, which impose the embargo, are in breach of this article. These countries even abstract the participation of the children of Iraq from the cultural and artistic life.

   They prevent children from enjoying their spare time and practice their hobbies. These countries force the children to work hard after school hours, and they even lead them to drop out from school.

   Table No. (4)

   The Age Group of the Children Who work after school hours

   Age group	No.	Percentage
   6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 total	43 31 81 72 39 266	16.2 11.6 30.4 27.1 14.7 12.2

2. Drop Out

According to Para (E) of Article (28) of the convention on the Rights of the child , the states are committed to take he necessary measures to encourage regular attendance of children at school and to reduce drop-out rates.

Obviously drop-out from school is one of the complicated educational problem in the developing countries in particular. The problem has many social and economic dimensions, which affect families of the school in Iraq.

The study findings showed that the problem of the drop-outs has doubled and it ranked second among the educational and social phenomenon which emerged in Iraq .The intensity of the problem has increased by 206% over the situation prior to the embargo. The weighted average which was 21.4 rose to 44.1 in the post embargo imposition years with a statistical significance at 0.1 level where the value of Chi Square was 98.32.

In the light of investigations made by the researchers, the following are thought to be the main causes of dropout from school:

1. The economic embargo has led to an increase in the prices and rise in the cost of living, coupled with a sharp fall in the purchasing power of the most families. The parents of these children have become convinced that education is no longer financially beneficial and that the time and efforts spent on education exceed the benefits, which an educated person might gain through working in the public sector.
2. Though education in Iraq is free and books and stationery are provided by the state, poor families still find it difficult to cover the cost of sending their children to school and pay for their clothes, shoes, stationery and other supplies in addition to giving them some pocket-money. Furthermore, the sky rocketing prices in the unusual conditions created by the economic embargo have driven some families to a point where they find themselves unable to finance their children's studies, so they take some or all of these children out of school.
3. As a result of the economic embargo imposed on Iraq, the economy in general and the market prices are all in a state of instability. Prices of goods and services tend to rise daily and the cost of living has become unbearable. Poor families try to exploit efforts of their children in many ways to increase income of the family and thus provide food for their children but not education.

3: Absent-mindedness

It is necessary that a pupil should be attentive in the classroom so that he can absorb and comprehend his lessons. Absent-mindedness means moving of mind away from the immediate surroundings.

This is an undesirable phenomenon for children at school. An absent -minded child cannot concentrate and finds it difficult to understand his lessons. It should be mentioned that absent - mindedness might continue with a child in his adulthood.

The intensity of this problem has increased after the embargo and reached 204% over the situation before the embargo.

The weighted average went up from 24.5 to 49.9 following the embargo imposition years with a statistical significance at 0.1 level where the value of Chi-Square was 85.41.

Investigations of the causes of this increase in the intensity of this problem have shown the following:

1. Unstable social relations among members of the family and an increase in the number of the problems at home lead to disturbance in concentration among the children and consequently to absent -mindedness.
2. Studies have shown that lack of food and psychological deprivation might cause retard in general comprehension and mental growth of the child. It also weakens his ability in concentration and recall which eventually leads to absent -mindedness and failure at school.