Issues and Challenges of Education Provision in Countries Affected by Violent Conflict with Special Reference to Iraq

Abstract

The end of the Cold War did not finish tension and conflict worldwide. According to the statistics, there were 57 different major armed conflicts in 45 different locations in the 12-year post-cold war period 1990-2001 (Wallensteen, P. 2002). Some of the frequent conflicts are intra-country and some are inter-country. Unfortunately, both kinds of aggression are likely to result in widespread devastating physical destruction, massive displacement of population as well as considerable fatalities and injuries to the population and may even lead to many states being in danger of collapse. All these will inevitably seriously destroy the normal process of educational provision. Just as Tawil argues that violence appears to be increasingly affecting society and education system in general (Tawil, S.1997:8). This paper is about the issues and challenges of education provision in violent conflict situations and educational reconstruction in post-conflicts. The paper highlights some of the main issues and debates in this arena, with special reference to Iraq. The wider implications for emergency education in violent conflict situations and educational reconstruction in post-conflicts are also explored.