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I am sorry I cannot be with you in person today as
an important task takes me from Erbil. However, I
would still like to support this valuable conference
with the following message.
Your attendance here today is another very strong
message of support for our serious efforts to
rebuild our country and society. Conferences such as
this are responses to the destructive activities of
terrorists. Whatever they do, the terrorists cannot
stop our progress.
In order for us to protect our Region we must
improve our capabilities in all aspects, especially
in the area of intelligence. We need the support and
cooperation of our people and we ask all parties to
help us in this endeavor.
Following the fall of Saddam’s regime the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) made good progress on many
fronts. We are determined to make the kind of
substantial progress that our people desire and
deserve to improve their quality of life. In
pursuing our promising future, it is important to
realize that we have only just begun. And it is
useful to realize that we have a long way to go. Our
past has been filled with oppression, isolation,
struggle and survival. We are now in a transition
period from the horrors of the past to the promise
of the future.
Ours is a future where the rule of law and the
principles of democracy and respect for human rights
must become standards of everyday life. We are
committed to pursuing this future in a secure,
federal, pluralistic and democratic Iraq.
We must move beyond the past where our people have
become dependent on government for virtually
everything except their birth. Our people came to
expect government to meet their basic needs free of
cost. We have paid dearly for this dependency. It
wasn’t free. We paid with suffering, and with life
itself. As has been rightly said, “freedom isn’t
free”.
Our future of promise will not happen by itself. Our
greatest resource is our people and only our people
can build our country, and a new future for
themselves. Government alone can never build a
future for our people. We as the KRG are obligated
and committed to creating an environment where our
people can build their own future.
Building the future our people desire and deserve
means improving our capabilities. This can only be
done through education and training, and by gaining
experience. We have much to learn from others and we
must not hesitate to learn from them.
After decades of isolation our people must be
exposed to the wider world. They must visit other
countries to observe and
to learn. We must also bring experts from other
countries to live with us to teach and train, and to
expand and strengthen
our capabilities. We need to do this with vigour and
we need to begin yesterday.
We have been securing the past and present with
weapons. But we cannot pursue the future with
weapons. Our future can be pursued only by
strengthening our capabilities and capacity-building
through education. Education is the key to our
future. Education is our weapon to pursue and
protect our future.
We shall learn from both the East and the West, and
we shall not hesitate to learn from either. The
world has much to teach us. To shun or discount
learning from any part of the world is only to cheat
ourselves of the promises our future has to offer.
It is necessary for you, our Region’s educators, to
create a special program for teaching. This program
should concentrate on gaining information from the
outside world. It should fulfill the government view
that no member of our society should be illiterate.
Education is directly related to economic and social
development. Through education, society can identify
its goals and organize its resources. They can
customize their programs and plans in order to
fulfill their objectives.
Our people are no different from others around the
world. That is why the KRG is focusing so intently
on education. The quality of teaching and the
educational system is of the utmost importance to
all - young and old, women and men. Nothing is more
important for improving the quality of life than
receiving a quality education. We cannot have
genuine freedom and prosperity until we have
effective and contemporary education throughout our
Region, for all our people.
Each one of us has role to play – government, the
private sector, parents, teachers and students. Each
must meet his or her responsibilities if we are to
be successful. Today, I am proposing a new regional
policy on education that centers on six areas:
First – we need more and better schools. The
learning environment is critical to a good
education. We must provide more and better school
buildings, and they must be better equipped. We must
better maintain the schools that we already have.
To do this, we must increase the budget for new
classroom construction and for maintaining existing
classrooms.
Second, we need to examine the way we teach. We must
be truthful with our people. Our people have
benefited from experience in other countries. Now we
must create those environments within our own
country.
Our teaching methods are too much like military
instruction and not enough about developing our
capacities to think.
We need to modify our classrooms and our teaching
styles to allow for more interaction with students,
more group work and discussion, and more hands-on
experience in the sciences, math, arts, and
information and communication technology. The world
in which we live is changing dramatically, and we
must change our educational system with it.
Third, our education system will only be as good as
the teachers and administrators who run it. We have
recently made significant increases in teacher
salaries, but we need to do more. Our teachers need
to do more to modernise their approach and to
develop improved educational skills. We need to
provide the opportunities for them to do this
through additional instruction, including access to
online training programs, and through education
abroad and by bringing top level expertise to our
Region.
Fourth, we need to make a major effort to use
technology and modern methods in our educational
system. Technology
and the mastering of information access and
application are keys to a successful and prosperous
future. We must find
new ways of providing basic information technology
training in all our schools.
Fifth, we need to integrate our efforts with the
world educational community. The internet provides
us with access to a huge network of governmental and
non-governmental resources to improve our
educational system, including online courses,
training programs and seminars. There are major UN
and World Bank educational programs, and potential
sources of funding for our efforts. I am instructing
the Minister of Education to create an Office of
International Programs whose mission will be to
locate these global resources and make better use of
them for the Kurdistan Region.
Six, there is a role for the private sector in this
effort. No one will benefit more from improvements
in the educational system than the private sector.
Businesses desperately need educated and quality
workers and we need our system to produce those
workers. But businesses must step up to their
responsibilities by helping us support some of these
improvements.
There is not a strong tradition in this region for
corporate contributions, but I am asking our Finance
Ministry to look at ways in which we can provide
incentives for businesses who can help us improve
our schools through donations of materials,
contributions to local schools and assistance to our
teachers with materials and equipment. We will
provide land to those willing to build schools and
will undertake all manner of cooperation and support
to anyone who can help us in this vital area.
Iraq once had a tradition of excellence through
private schools. Many private school graduates have
been leaders in Iraq. While our public (government)
schools need substantial improvement, which we have
begun, there is also a strong role for private
schools that excel in meeting the standards we
desire for all our children.
All of these points will require much of us all.
Government must find the resources for school
construction, teacher training and teacher salaries.
Parents must commit to making their children’s
education their number one family priority.
Teachers must make the effort to modernize their
approach to teaching and universities must make this
training available.
Administrators must be more creative and
forward-looking in their designs and plans and find
better ways to use financial and human resources.
The private sector must contribute its share as it
stands to gain the most.
And finally, our students must develop and maintain
good study habits and an understanding that their
future, and their families’ future, depends upon
being successful in school.
Building a new future will take much time, effort
and resources. It will not happen by itself. Since
1992, the KRG has supported the construction of
hundreds of schools, and the training and hiring of
thousands of new teachers. But the capabilities of
our people can only be improved through quality
education – by raising standards and meeting them.
We must put the emphasis on quality.
I believe it is necessary to establish educational
policies that consider all the key factors. This
entails raising the level of our education system,
improving the quality of education and finding
suitable solutions for key issues.
I would like to once again assure you all that
education is a top priority for the KRG. This is why
we are dedicated to securing resources and funds
necessary to meet this priority. We want to ensure
the best results from our efforts and the
substantial resources that we plan invest.
I would like to thank the Minister for Education,
Dilshad Abdul Rahman, and each and every member of
the ministry and all others who have worked hard to
make this important conference a success.
I hope that you can deal with the subjects to be
discussed in a contemporary spirit. We must not be
afraid of discussing our weaknesses. Constructive
criticism is healthy, and the KRG is dedicated to
confronting and strengthening weakness.
We must benefit from this opportunity to draft a
realistic education policy.
In order to change the education system, I would
like to ask for cooperation and coordination between
civil society organisations, the Educational
Committee of the Kurdistan National Assembly, and
the relevant KRG ministries and offices.
Again, I thank you very much and I wish this
conference great success. I look forward to the
implementation of your suggestions and
recommendations.
Thank you
krg org
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