Right now the Iraqis are working on a curriculum development project (see Harvey’s post below), so I’m taking the time to do a little blogging. The first session that we held has been the most interesting to me (sorry Michele and Harvey). Rather than a lecture, it was a rambling conversation about the state of LIS education in Iraq, how the five programs are structured, and some of the major challenges they are facing, aside from the most obvious. Here are some of the things that came up:
* There are five schools with library science programs. The basic level degree is a bachelor’s, although there are also three master’s programs and one doctoral. Two of the five programs are at technical institutes, which are two year programs rather than four. The five schools are: University of Baghdad, Baghdad Technical Institute, University of Mosul, Mosul Technical Institute, University of Basrah.
* The high schools work on an exam system and students are assigned to an undergraduate program based on their exam scores. The most successful students are assigned to engineering, medicine, and science. It sounds like librarianship is pretty far down the ladder. So the professors have students who didn’t choose the subject and are not necessarily motivated. (This is different for the master’s and doctorate program – they have rigorous application processes.)
* Primary schools and high schools don’t have libraries, and the public libraries are in bad shape. The students being assigned to library science programs haven’t even used a library, much less worked in one.
* Because the textbooks are so horribly out of date, professors work hard to come up with supplementary materials for their classes. Of course, if they are having a technology lesson and the power goes out, that’s pretty much it for the day.
Harvey is very straightforward when talking about the larger problems in Iraq, acknowledging outright that there are many things they simply cannot do because of the security situation. The conversation doesn’t go much beyond that, because it’s not what we’re here to talk about and it’s out of our control. Mostly, we stick to libraries and library science education. Once in a while, though, someone will make a comment that recalls the bleakness of the situation in Iraq. We were discussing a particular program’s required course in human rights and one participant said, “Yes, we are teaching human rights in a country without human rights.” Those are the observations that will stick with me, reminding me of why we’re here in the first place.