Erbil’s international schools defy the war with learning and prom parties

ERBIL, Kurdistan region- Teachers and students at Erbil’s international schools have kept the doors open and classes on time despite a financial crisis and an ongoing war with the Islamic State (ISIS). They believe the situation has provided a learning environment and material for debate.

“They (students) have been to refugee camps of Yezidis. They also took a genocide class,” Avin Hawrami, head of the American school in Erbil told Rudaw. “We have given them assignments about Peshmerga. We did as a pleasure thing and educated them at the same time.”

Hawrami said that the ISIS war and economic crisis have been a challenge for her school. She was asked by the Kurdish parliament, for instance, to reduce tuition fees by 20 percent. But, she says, she has kept the school running, describing the situation as reality and not worthy of shutting down her school.

“If I become scared and close the school for every small thing that happens that indicates we are teaching the children not to have a normal life,” she argued. “In the US they teach us that we need to be united, if I shut down the school, this means I have given up,” she added.

In the last six years more than 10 international schools have opened in the Kurdistan Region, among them American, British, German, and French. The first batch of graduates from the American school were admitted into colleges and universities in the US, Germany, Korea, Norway, and Poland.

Teachers and students are mindful of what is happening outside the walls of their classroom and the threat of war. Maria Salaum, a teacher from the Philippines at the American school says that her students and her family ask her about safety, but her response is that whatever the challenge, it is something to be overcome.

“I feel safe here, and I have always said it if there is a problem we need to solve it,” she said, adding her faith in the Kurdish army to keep the region safe. “I am sure the Peshmerga force is willing to die for the region, and I believe in the way they fight.”

Salaum also tries to reassure her family back home that life is normal where she works despite what they may see in the news.

“I always try to show the pictures of the activities that I do here to my family. They think I am crazy for staying here,” she told Rudaw. “They really wonder what I am doing.”

 

She believes that stopping to teach and abandoning her students would be “unfair and selfish”.

Fahad Fakhir, 27, a Kurd born and raised in the US and now teaching at the American school echoes the sentiment that instead of packing up and leave this is the right time to be in Kurdistan and contribute something to the region.

He tries to set an example to his students that they each have a role to play in times of crisis.

“My students know that I have the chance to go back to US but I do not. I think this has a positive effect on the students,” he said. Comparing the Kurdish region to parts of the US, he also believes that “The crime rate in Kurdistan is very low than many other US cities,”

The international schools host local and foreign students as well as children of Kurdish families who have returned from abroad, creating a multicultural environment for learning.

“I like it here because it is very different from US and I wish kids from America get the same chance to have this experience to be exposed to world and understand the world,” says Emily, an 18-year-old American student who wanted to be identified by her first name.

Others like Helen Ahmed, an 18-year-old Kurdish-Norwegian, can still pursue a quality education in Kurdistan while able to attend rare activities such as Halloween parties.

However, she says, it is not easy to explain to friends in Norway that “I go out every day after school and I never had a problem.”

For Stacey Xaelani, a lecturer at the University of Kurdistan-Erbil (UKH) whose young daughter studies at the French school, the ISIS attack on the Kurdistan Region two summers ago almost made her quit Kurdistan and not return from her vacation abroad, but she did, believing that it will all be a story to reflect on in the future.

“I wish my daughter didn’t even know about terrorism and in some ways I wish we hadn't returned because I don’t want her to be exposed to all this,” she told Rudaw. “But on the other hand I think if we can come out the other side of this and stay in Kurdistan; we can hopefully look back at this one day and say 'if we have lived through that, we can endure anything,”

Teachers and students alike know that they cannot escape photos and video footage of the ISIS war thanks to the Internet and social media, but Kevin Tubb, head of the secondary department of the British school, safety and ISIS aren’t even a matter for discussion at meetings with students’ parents.

“People who are here relatively understand that we are safe surrounded by a bubble of Peshmerga who defend us and defend our borders,” he said. “We are not subject to danger nor are our children.”

Tubb, who has taught in other international schools in the Middle East believes that “By being here as a staff, as a school we are fighting ISIS, we tell them ‘hey we cannot fight you with a gun but we fight you with a pen,’”