Counter-Terrorism: The New Mosul Model For Early Education

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December 5, 2015: In Iraq ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) sought to resume education for over 300,000 children in Mosul earlier in 2015. ISIL encountered a lot of resistance from parents. In part this was because of the cost. Iraq stopped paying civil servants in Mosul in early 2015, mainly because some of the money ended up going to ISIL and all those government employees were now working for ISIL. In response ISIL imposed fees for children wishing to attend school. The ISIL occupation of Mosul ruined the local economy and most parents barely had enough to buy food. But another problem was the way in which ISIL changed the curriculum. ISIL did not issue new text books but did distribute CDs with files that could be shown on a computer screen or projected onto a wall. Parents were encouraged to go to copy shops which could provide paper copies of these new text books. This cost more than the school fees. Worse the new curriculum was based on what had long been used by religious schools infamous for mainly teaching their students that it was good to become an Islamic terrorist. This curriculum also encouraged kids to inform on their parents if it seemed they seemed to be doing anything un-Islamic. This sort of thing was particularly effective (for ISIL) with kid under ten. ISIL is not punishing parents for not sending their kids to school as illiterate young men also make good potential recruits and no school is preferable to anything resembling a Western education.