According to educationvv, education in Iraq is built according to the following system: primary – 6 years, incomplete secondary – 3 years, complete secondary – 3 more years, i.e. only 12 years old. There are also secondary vocational and pedagogical educational institutions. In the 1994/95 school year, there were 8,035 primary schools in Iraq with 3 million children. In 2635 junior and senior secondary schools (all data for 1994/95 and do not include data on Iraqi Kurdistan) – 1.1 million people studied. 110 thousand people studied in 274 secondary vocational schools and colleges. 189 thousand people studied at 11 state universities and several technical universities, incl. 50.7 thousand studied at Baghdad University, and 53.3 thousand people. — in technical universities. In addition, there are three universities in Iraqi Kurdistan: the largest one is in the city of Erbil (Salah ad-Din University). In con. 1990s it had 11 faculties, 7050 students. The general management of education is carried out by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
In addition to universities, scientific activity is carried out by the Organization for Scientific Research, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Iraqi Academy of Sciences (established in 1940; it studies Arab culture—history, literature, language, poetry, and folklore).
In Iraq, a country of ancient culture, there are rich museums. The most famous of them are located in Baghdad: the Iraqi Museum, which exhibits samples of the culture of the peoples and states of Mesopotamia from the Stone Age to the 7th century. AD; museum of Islamic culture; museum of Arab monuments “Khan-Marjan”; weapons museum; Museum of Contemporary Iraqi Art. In Mosul, there is a large historical museum rich in monuments (exhibits from Nineveh, Nimrud, El-Hadar). In total, there were 27 museums in the country in 1994.
The most important monuments of Islamic culture, well preserved in Iraq, are mosques (mostly active) and mausoleums – both Shiite and Sunni, for example, the Golden Mosque, the mosque-mausoleum of Imam Abu Hanif in Baghdad, the mausoleums in Karbala, Najaf, Samarra.
General information about Iraq
The official name is the Republic of Iraq (Jumhuriya al Iraq; Republic of Iraq). Located in Southwest Asia. The area is 435.05 thousand km2, the population is 23.117 million people. (2000). The official language is Arabic, in Iraqi Kurdistan – and Kurdish. The capital is the city of Baghdad (about 5 million people). The monetary unit is the Iraqi dinar (equal to 1,000 fils).
Member of the UN (since 1945) and its specialized organizations, the Arab League (since 1945), OPEC (since 1960), the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (since 1968), the OIC (since 1971), the Arab Monetary Fund (since 1978), and others.
Population of Iraq
Over. 95% of the population (Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans, Iranians, Turks) profess Islam, which is the state religion. The rest profess Christianity of various persuasions, Judaism and some residual forms of the ancient beliefs of the peoples of the Middle East. Most of the Muslims in Iraq belong to the Shia community (60-65% of all Muslims in the country and about 80% of Arab Muslims). The Shia community in Iraq is the largest in the Arab countries and ranks third in the world after Iran and Pakistan. In addition to the Arabs, 30% of the Turkomans living in Iraq also belong to it; virtually all Iraqis are of Iranian origin (Persians). Most Shiites live in the south and east of the country, as well as in Baghdad. Most of the Shiites are rural residents, Shiites-townspeople live, in addition to the sacred Shiite centers of En-Nejaf and Karbala, and in such religious centers of Shiism as Kazimeyn (outskirts of Baghdad), Kufa, Samarra. The Shia population is represented by the Imami sects (the largest sect in Shiism) – approx. 90% of the country’s Shiites, Sheikhs, Ali-Ilahi, Baha’is, Ismailis. Shiites are the most backward and traditionally oppressed part of the country’s population. The spiritual leader of the Shiites of Iraq, the Ayatollah, lives in En-Najaf. Sunnis are the leading branch in the world of Islam, but in Iraq it ranks second in terms of the number of its adherents (about 30-35% of all Muslims in the country and less than 20% of Iraqi Arabs). Such a ratio between the number of Sunnis and Shiites was carefully concealed by the authorities during the years of the Baath Party in power, the existing differences in the socio-economic situation between Sunnis and Shiites were obscured in every possible way. These differences have existed since the time of the Ottoman Empire. All senior positions in administrative bodies and in various sectors of the economy, officer positions in the army and police were primarily given to Sunnis (under the Ba’ath, to members of this ruling party). Sunnis live in the center and north of Iraq. The highest authority among the Sunnis is kady (qadi). Christians in Iraq from 800 thousand to 1 million people. (grade). Most of the Assyrians (Nestorians) belong to the Orthodox Church. Some of the Assyrians (Syro-Catholics) belong to the Catholics, the Chaldeans are former Nestorians who accepted union with the Catholic Church and obey the Pope, as well as Jacobite Arabs and Maronites. The number of Chaldeans and Assyrians, according to St. 600 thousand people A part of the Armenian community also belongs to the Catholics. The other part – the Gregorian Armenians recognize as their head the Catholicos of all Armenians in Etchmiadzin (Armenia). The total number of Armenians in the country in 2000 is approx. 30 thousand people From religious minorities, professing residual forms of ancient beliefs, the most famous are the Yezidis (about 30-50 thousand people) and the Sabeans (several tens of thousands). The Jewish community, which unites professing Judaism, has approx. 2.5 thousand people, they live mainly in Baghdad and Basra. The Jewish community was once very influential in the business world of Iraq. However, since 1948 – the beginning of the Arab-Israeli wars – the vast majority of Jews have left Iraq.
