The volunteer tutors of an Ezidi camp school have decided to stop teaching and pupils were sent home after two years of voluntary service.
The school of Sardasht IDP camp, home for 550 Ezidi families on Shingal Mount northeast of Iraq, offered education for 400 pupils since 2019. The families were making donations to cover payments to the instructors.
Ezidi Murad Omar lives in the camp for seven years. A son and daughter of Omer attend class three of the school. “My kids came back home and said school was closed and we cannot go to school any more because the teachers have not been paid any salaries.”
“My kids came back home and said school was closed and we cannot go to school any more because the teachers have not been paid any salaries.”
Omar said he is ready to pay IQD10,000 (About USD7) per month to school “but the majority of the displaced of Sardashty (camp) are in poor financial conditions and cano not afford paying for school. Some families have four kids and cano not afford buying cooking gas so how they can pay IQD40,000 ($30) to the lecturers?”
In 2014, Hundreds of thousands of members of the Ezidi religious minority, facing genocide from ISIS, escaped to the mountain from the town of Sinjar and surrounding villages in northern Iraq. Ezidis are an ancient and secretive religious minority whose faith has long left them as targets for persecution.
Many of them are still living in 26 camps in the northern province of Duhok. The Iraqi Ministry of Immigration and Displaced decided to cut all aid for the IDP camps in December in order to encourage the IDPs to return to their home regions.
Sign of Sardashty Primary School for Ezidi IDP pupils at Shingal Mount camp. Photo KirkukNow
The school staff slammed at Nineveh (State) education directorate for disregard to education of the IDP pupils.
Murad Elias with four other teachers run the displacement camp school. Elias says Nineveh education is in charge of the school but “they are careless and do not meet our demands and the families can not pay for their kids so we decided to stop teaching.”
Elias believes Nineveh deliberately neglects education in the camp. “There are schools whom have only 50 pupils under Shignal education directorate and have permanent teachers. This discrimination is not acceptable.”
“There are schools whom have only 50 pupils under Shignal education directorate and have permanent teachers. This discrimination is not acceptable.”
Elias said they have contacted local officials of education in Shingal tens of times but no one responded.
Residents of Sardasht camp at Mount Shingal staged a protest in January against the government for not providing heating fuel and other basic services. Ezidis are reluctant to return home amid security and service fears.
Five security forces and three administrations exist in Shingal. Erbil-Baghdad disputes are one of the key issues leaving the area missing reconstruction and basic public services.
“How we can return home if our homes are demolished and there are no public services in our villages?” Omar added. “
Iraqi minster of migration and the displaced told state TV on Friday that out of 174 camps for IDPs, only 26 are still open, 16 of them for Ezidi IDPS in Duhok northern province. Sardashty camp is based 20 km away of Sinuny subdistrict of Shingal district.
Directorate of education in Shingal is to push Nineveh education to sort our Sardashty camp’s school. “We are aware of the issue of the pupils and we promise them it will be sorted out soon by appointment of permanent teachers and a payment for the lecturers,” Sa’ad Mato, director of Shingal education, Arabic curriculums department, told KirkukNow. Mato is due to meet director general of Nineveh education on Sunday.
“My kids every morning come and ask me to go back to school and I have no answer and don’t know what to say. We ask Nineveh education to find a solution,” Omer demanded.
Ali Sha’bo, director of the camp said the solution lies in paying the five lecturers or providing a bus for transport the students (to Sinuny schools).
