"90% of Iraqi students do not understand what they read"... A World Bank report angers Baghdad

A report issued by the World Bank, which stated that 90% of Iraqi students do not understand what they read, angered the Iraqi Minister of Education, Ali al-Dulaimi, who pledged that his ministry will have a close position.

The World Bank approved a new $10 million project to support innovations for learning in three underdeveloped Iraqi governorates.

According to a World Bank statement published on its website on Monday, the project aims to enhance teaching practices for Arabic language and mathematics teachers, and improve reading, writing and arithmetic skills among the most vulnerable primary school students in Iraq's lagging provinces.

"Human capital development is at the heart of achieving sustainable economic growth," the bank said.

He added, "Iraq's human capital represents only 15% of total wealth, which is one of the lowest rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and is largely due to poor educational outcomes."

"Years of conflict and structural inefficiencies have resulted in an education system that does not adequately transfer basic skills - the foundation for learning and skills development," he continued.

He said the latest assessment of early grade reading as well as math shows that by the third grade of primary school, the vast majority of Iraqi students assessed had not yet acquired sufficient basic skills - with more than 90% of students not understanding what they were reading.

And the World Bank added in its statement: “Almost a third of the third grade students were unable to answer correctly one question about one of the texts appropriate for their age that they had just read, and 41% of the students in the same grade were unable to correctly solve one arithmetic subtraction problem. ".

For his part, Iraqi Minister of Education Ali al-Dulaimi said, "The World Bank has no income in evaluating educational skills, and it is not among its tasks."

In a statement he made to the "National News Center" website, he added that the World Bank "is concerned with providing loans or financial grants that it obtains from some countries to help countries that get wars or armed conflicts."

He added, "The Ministry of Education will have a position with the World Bank after verifying the authenticity of the report if it was actually issued by them," according to what the website reported.

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