Iraqis wary as school year starts

Khadija Ali Mijaual plans to greet children and parents at the front gate of the Nejib Pasha elementary school this Saturday, just as she has done every first day of school for the past 17 years she's been principal.

Along with her optimism for the learning she anticipates in the school's whitewashed classrooms, this year she'll be holding her breath: How many parents, given Baghdad's uncertain climate, will keep their children at home?

"I've worked hard to make the school extra inviting and attractive this year, and the teachers will be here ready to teach," says Mrs. Mijaual. "But the reports I'm getting tell me maybe half the children won't come, at least not in the beginning. Parents are just too afraid."

Much is being made of January elections as the critical hurdle the new regime must clear to prove its utility. But this week another crucial test confronts the interim government, as it opens schools Saturday to 6 million students.

In a country where more than two-thirds of the population is under 25, the question on parents' minds is whether the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi - which many believe is so far failing to assure general security - can keep the children safe.

"It's really like an early trial of what the elections will be," says Sadoun Al-Dulame, executive director of the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies. "If the government can't protect the schools from the violent groups, how can they hope to guarantee elections?"

Citing heightened security concerns, the three-month-old interim government already put off the traditional early September opening of schools. But if anything, the past month, with its increased bombings, kidnappings, and insurgent activity, only heightened the public's doubts and placed an even heavier burden on the government.

The role of elections and "the demo- cratic process" in building a new Iraq is important, but for many Iraqis it's the more tangible daily measures of well-being that determine their feelings about this new political direction, some experts say. Chief among those close-to-the-heart barometers are schools.

"Not everyone thinks about democracy when they evaluate whether this dramatic change we've undergone is worth it," says Riyadh Aziz Hadi, dean of the College of Political Sciences at Baghdad University. "I might put it at the top of my list, but for many people it's jobs and the schools that count," he says.

The terrible events in Beslan, Russia, earlier this month - where Chechen separatist terrorists attacked a primary school, killing hundreds of children - are also in the back of people's minds, if not on the tip of their tongues. "How can I send my children to school when our situation is not so different from what struck those poor Russian people?" asked a mother recently on a Baghdad call-in radio show.

Most Iraqis say they are confident such a tragedy could never occur here, but some add that they never thought such tactics as suicide bombings would ever be used here, either.

The nervousness has one man, who is building a new house near the Nejib Pasha school, insisting he will keep his children home this year. "Better to lose a year of school than lose their life," says the father of three school-aged children, who requested that his name not be used.

Other parents say that even with the turmoil they will send their children to school for a simple reason. "Without it they can't have a good life," says Ali Hussain Mohamed, as he makes last-minute arrangements for son Yassir and daughter Hiba at the Al Waziriyah elementary school.

"Their 12-year-old brother will walk with them and God willing they will be safe," says Mr. Mohamed, a guard who works at a house opposite the nearby Italian Embassy. "But I do know the dangers," he adds, "because I myself have been shot at in attacks on the embassy."

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