[EDLING:112] Minorities in North Iraq Lose Out in Education

[Francis M. Hult]

AINA

Minorities in North Iraq Lose Out in Education

Kirkuk, North Iraq -- Tara Emad, 10, walks home after class, singing a song in 
her native Kurdish that she recently learnt at school.

The scene would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. During Saddam's 
reign, the only language taught and used in Iraqi schools was Arabic, the 
exception being the autonomous Kurdish region, of which Kirkuk - Tara's 
hometown - was not a part.

Thousands of children like Tara were deprived of the right to speak and be 
educated in their mother tongue, be it Kurdish, Turkoman or Assyrian.

Full story
http://www.aina.org/news/20070512145858.htm