[casi] Alert: US firms to "fix" Iraqi Edu System

["AS-ILAS" <AS-ILAS@DELETETHISgmx.de>]

http://www.transnational.org/pressinf/2003/pf182_BurgerStyleEducat.html


Burger philosophy to quick
fix Iraq's education system

PressInfo # 182
 April 24, 2003
By
Jan Oberg, TFF director


What kind of education will Iraq's children get under US occupation?
We've heard it time and again and we know it's an old truth: our kids are
the future. These weeks, the media focus almost exclusively on the war, on
military people who "rebuild" Iraq (after having destroyed it) and they
focus on politics.

But together with security, no aspect of post-war reconstruction,
reconciliation and development is more important than the education system
in a broad sense. It certainly deserves more media attention than it get.
What the US occupation administration does these very weeks is intended to
have a long-term impact on the Iraqi society - that is if they succeed.

Naturally, therefore, I get very curious when, a few days ago, a friend
sends me an e-mail asking whether I have seen that Washington-based Creative
International Associates Inc, CAII, has been awarded a contract worth US$ 62
million to re-build the education system of Iraq. I haven't, so I look up
CAII's website and read its news of April 14, 2003, "The United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded Creative Associates
International, Inc. (CAII) the Revitalization of Iraqi Schools and
Stabilization of Education (RISE) Project, which will seek to mend more than
a decade of neglect to Iraq's education sector."


"Neglecting" the kids in Iraq

The situation in Iraqi schools is terrible; here are some basic statistics
from TFF PressInfo 173. The data cover the changes that have taken place
since the late 1980s and early 1990s, i.e. a period in which the regime has
not conducted any wars.

SCHOOLING
- No longer attending primary school: 31% girls, 18% boys
- No longer attending secondary school: 50% boys and 60% girls
- Teacher salary: US $ 3-5; shifts, classes of up to 60 pupils, outdated
curriculum
- 5,100 new school buildings need to be built, 70% of existing schools need
rehabilitation
- Literacy rate 1998: 58%, used to be much higher in the 1980s due to
literacy campaigns; thus, adult literacy rate was 72% in 1987.
- Female illiteracy has increased from 8% in 1985 to 45% in 1995.
The US was the most eager to continue the sanctions that amounted to a
genocide on the Iraqis and destruction of their health and school system.
That must be what is meant by "neglect" above? If so, it's history's irony
that a US private, for-profit company is now to rebuild Iraq's schools?


Creative Associates International Inc.

Here is what you can read on CAII's homepage:
"Creative Associates will lead an alliance of partners on the RISE Project
which aims to provide rapid distribution of school materials, equipment, and
supplies in Iraq. Education reform efforts will underscore accelerated
learning and enhanced teacher and school capacity, breathing life into an
education system that was once among the strongest in the Middle East.

Rapid assessment processes will be initiated immediately to meet the
educational system's most pressing needs. Iraqi NGO partners will be trained
to guide local data collectors that will help establish targets for rapid
distribution of materials. The American Manufacturers Export Group (AMEG),
will lead procurement efforts.
Accelerated learning pilot projects will be launched in five counties to
address girls' education, the needs of overage pupils, and out-of-school
youth. US-based Iraqi NGO partners bring a wealth of local knowledge and
will help provide basic services, with an eye to reaching especially needy
rural areas."

I read this a couple of times and I still don't understand what they are
actually going to do. I do not know what is meant by Non-Governmental
Organisations, NGO, in Iraq; under Saddam there were only Near-Governmental
Organisations. And I wonder how much US-based Iraqi NGOs can contribute
given the situation on the ground. But I do understand it will be both
rapid, immediate, accelerated.

Here follows excerpts of how CAII presents itself and I quote at length with
a purpose:
CAII was founded in 1977 as a private for-profit international consulting
firm. It employs in excess of 200 staff, and operates in 12 field offices
around the world; it had in FY 2001 revenues of $35M and has in excess of
$200 million in signed contracts. It is a minority, women-owned and managed
firm and has security clearance to handle classified work/information.

CAII believes in corporate values and excellence, equity, inclusion,
diversity, empowerment, sustainability, and client participation and
"approaches change as an opportunity to transform and renew."
Here is what it says about civil society, "The existence of an independent,
engaged and politically active civil society is a condition for a
participatory and accountable democracy. CAII enhances the capacity of civil
society actors so they can more fully participate in democratic life. In
particular, CAII's efforts seek to strengthen the role of civil society in
the human rights, electoral, legislative advocacy, and governance arenas.
CAII's projects foster citizen participation to fight corruption, heighten
transparency, and demand accountability."

This is how it describes its work in Afghanistan, also with AMEG as a
partner:
"On the eve of the new school year in Afghanistan, 50 metric tons of new
primary textbooks were revised, printed and are being delivered to schools
across Afghanistan.

Under the USAID-funded $16.5 million Afghanistan Primary Education Program
(APEP) and in close collaboration with the Afghanistan Ministry of
Education, a consortium led by Creative Associates International completed
the job. Requiring complex logistics, books were airlifted from Indonesia to
meet the March 22, 2003 school season deadline. . By late May, in close
collaboration with the American Manufacturers Export Group (AMEG), more than
10 million new text books will have been produced and transported to
Afghanistan by Creative Associates International."


US$ 62 million for what education in Iraq?

So. it produces and transports school books. How will they produce millions
of school books for Iraq's children? USAID says that the U.S. government's
goal is to ensure that children are prepared for the new school year
beginning in September 2003. Will it be translated versions of those in
Afghanistan? I mean, it takes some time to assess the needs and construct
the above-mentioned 5,100 new school rooms and rehabilitate 70 pct (or more
now after the war) of the existing ones - and at least some of that must be
in place first?

Then it takes time to get Iraqis - authorities, teachers, parents, and
children - involved. To CAII participatory and democratic methods are
essential, right? During the process, there may turn up conflicts and they
must be handled throughout the education system. I then think of things like
the negotiation of salaries with the various teacher categories, the
development of curriculum with them, organising the ministerial structure,
etc. - not to mention the writing of the many and different types of text
books. And, yes of course, there is all the screening to be done so you
avoid having bad guys, such as Baath Party member, to teach the innocent
souls of primary and secondary levels.

I spent a long time browsing CAII's website. All of the texts are of the
type above, that's why I quote them at length so you can see slippery
marketing language with no real content. I can only hope it does not reflect
the quality of a firm that calls itself creative and works with educating
millions and millions of people in 12 places around the world.

There is not a word anywhere about the content, the difficulties ahead, the
cultural sensitivity. Not a word about how CAII is to go about it, the
didactics and the philosophy of learning that will be applied to this
country and its different religious and ethnic communities.

It's not that I expect the American occupiers to introduce Paolo Freire's
pedagogy of the oppressed or the convivial de-schooling thinking of Ivan
Illich. But there could have been a hint - provided, of course, that CAII
does not see education as a purely technical, tooling problem, a standard
package that can be air-dropped anywhere American interests are at stake and
USAID funding therefore available.

And how do you "rebuild the educational system" - quite a formulation! - of
a country you have not worked in before? I mean, what does CAII really know
about the millions of children it is going to "help", "service", "empower",
"democratise" and who have now been "liberated" by the US "President" a few
blocks away from CAII's offices in Washington?

By the way, he is a "President" who has done quite a lot to "neglect"
education in the US itself. If you don't trust me, take a look in Michael
Moore's Stupid White Men.which will also remind you why George W. Bush's
official title should be between quotation marks.

Sincere there is so much I don't understand, I surf a bit more and,
fortunately, find a Fox News Channel interview with CAII's President and
CEO, Charito Kruvant.

But, it seems she says only the right things - bordering on platitudes - and
nothing of substance:
- We start by communicating with the Iraqi people. One of the things that we
have learned in our work is that the education belongs to the people in the
country.
Hard pressed about how reasonable it is that foreigners come in to teach the
Iraqis, she insists that CAII is only helping:
- ". hand-in-hand with the Iraqi people, we will be able to identify - first
of all, we need to assess the real numbers. Secondly, we need to decide what
other kinds of things are the schools going need for October 1 when school
starts? We also know that the Iraqi regime has not been providing the kinds
of educational tools or educational materials that the children need.

So, really, the U.S. government is committed to support them. One of the
things that we're going to be doing is looking around to see what they need.
Do they need pencils? Do they need notebooks? Do they need blackboards?
We've seen in some instances that some of the schools have been ransacked."

Oh my! You get US$ 62 million and that's all you can say? And the Iraqi kids
are going to have a "new Iraq" by October 1 - "hopefully" in co-operation
with the Ministry of Education:
- "Our goal is that with the Iraqis and, hopefully, with the ministry of
education, we will be able to by October 1 start the schools in a way that
really demonstrates the transformation to a new Iraq.


Qualifying for the contract - embedded with Washington's power circles

I continue my surfing on the wonderful Internet and begin to understand that
the company's President and CEO, Charito Kruvant, is a very special person.
She was born in Bolivia and raised in Argentina. Judging from what can be
found on the Internet about her, she is extremely well connected with the
business community in Washington and rated as one of the 100 most powerful
women in the capital.

- "Since 1998, she has been a leader in the Project in Search of a National
Security Strategy, an effort that focuses on U.S. interests and values
through the promotion of legitimate governance and economic opportunities at
home and abroad. It involves the integration of concepts of democratic
freedom, the rule of law, human rights, free markets, and American
idealism."

She is also board director of Calvert, a socially responsible investment
company. Ms. Kruvant is involved in combating terrorism and emergency
situations in Washington
"The Greater Washington Board of Trade has rounded up four people - former
AOL executive George Vradenburg, Marsh managing director (and Connolly's
boss) Dick Duncan, KPMG's John Veihmeyer and Creative Associates' Charito
Kruvant - to develop plans complementary to the government's."
One must assume that combating terrorism in the US capital offer a lot of
political mileage. Long ago, Ms. Kruvant has even helped the US disarm the
Contras and undermined apartheid in South Africa.
"Kruvant has worked with rape victims in Bosnia and oppressed women in
Afghanistan. One of her most memorable moments on the job must include being
part of a U.S. government mission to convince the Contras that it was time
to put down their weapons and prepare for more peaceful activities. To
travel to her meeting with Nicaraguan guerillas, she was lowered from a
helicopter near their mountain retreat. Kruvant also was especially proud to
be among the few Americans to work within South Africa to end apartheid. She
and her team helped prepare black South African leaders to participate in
governing their country."

On a US government mission to disarm the Contras in Nicaragua - well.I have
not been able to find more about this part of the CAII CEO's life. The Arias
Peace Plan was signed on August 7, 1987, CAII founded in 1977.

Here is how Washington Post covered CAII's USAID contract for Iraq:
- "The speed -- and lack of competitive bidding -- with which the State
Department agency awarded six of its eight initial Iraqi reconstruction
contracts drew criticism from Congress and attention to companies that, like
IRG, had been little known outside the international development community.

M. Charito Kruvant, president and chief executive of Creative Associates
International Inc., a Washington consulting firm awarded a school
reconstruction contract worth as much as $62 million, said government
contractors are used to scrutiny.

"The issue of transparency is part of our life," Kruvant said. "I usually
say quite comfortably that people know my shoe size."

Finally, AMEG, CAII's partner in both Afghanistan and Iraq presents itself
this way on its simple website
- "American Manufacturers Export Group (AMEG) is a small woman owned firm
whose core business is as a Procurement Services Agent (PSA); however,
AMEG's strength is in providing a range of technical services for
humanitarian and economic development projects worldwide. While AMEG
specializes in the fields of procurement and logistics, we have also built a
reputation for capable management of large scale programs, high quality
feasibility studies, design, implementation, and evaluation."

Interestingly, while Sandra Tribble is President, Wess Tribble is Executive
Vice President:
- "Wess Tribble has extensive international experience as a private sector
executive, as a senior Foreign Service Officer, and Officer in the U.S.
Marine Corps. He served with USAID Missions in Asia, Africa, and the Middle
East. Upon retirement from the Foreign Service, he assumed the position of
Executive Vice President of AMEG. He has been involved in numerous sensitive
programs worldwide."

Who know what it could mean that one has been in the US foreign service and
the Marine Corps and been involved in sensitive programs?


Reasons to be very sceptical

It can't be excluded that Creative Associates Incorporated does do good
things to many people. I have not conducted an analysis beyond the website
and the media coverage.

But there are reasons to question why, without much competition, if any at
all, this company has been appointed and awarded the considerable sum of US$
62 million to bring education to a historically civilised country that used
to be perfectly able to educate its own people to a very high level.

1. This is private enterprise, for-profit education export. Whatever
learning it conveys it will be compatible with the corporate values that
furthers US globalisation interests.

2. Funding sources, methods and structure are likely to influence, if not
dominate, the content of what Iraqi children will learn in the future. So,
exactly what will Iraqis kids learn?

3. The slick presentation, the fashionable, politically correct words used
on the homepage betray a worldview that is fundamentally different from the
world in which the program is to be implemented.

4. It is structurally destined to serve US government and corporate
interests more than - as yet unidentified and unknown - Iraqi needs for
learning. How could it be participatory and create a "new Iraq" in 4-5
months?

5. Such programs will hardly be able to teach Iraqi children anything that
is not politically correct in the eyes of the current regime in Washington.

6. With fly-in technology and tools in the driver's seat, content takes the
back seat. That clashes fundamentally with creativity and with the needs of
a people yearning for freedom of thought and speech.

7. It is too close to USAID and the US government. However sympathetic that
the company is minority and woman owned, Ms. Kruvant's connections and
status in Washington's powerful circles, raises the suspicion of
favouritism.

8. True, many may sympathise with the implicit values and world views
'embedded' in this type of quick-fix programs, but do they - at the end of
the day - provide the Iraqis more freedom than, say, the old Baath Party
values that many may like a lot less?


Fast education...the Burger philosophy spreading

In short, it looks like quick-fix, air-dropped, fast education. It looks
like facade and superficiality: 'See how we care for the Iraqis and their
children, while in reality we don't give them a chance to influence the
process! It's difficult to see how they'll be subjects and not objects in
the process.

A hamburger is a poor meal compared with the thoughtfully prepared meal
based on the best raw materials and the art of cooking. The risk is high
that Iraq's children will be educated according to the hamburger model. But
we can be sure that the US will soon tell us about the "success" and count
their "rapid, immediate, accelerated learning" by the metric tons of
education and the millions of books. More means better! Perhaps this is the
American Way? But it isn't good.

After 25 years of dictatorship, 4 wars and 12 years of sanctions, could the
occupying Master really not do something more serious for the children and
youth of Iraq? Could the US not show just a little more respect for the
"liberated" Iraqis and their most important assets?

If children are the future, the time for investigative reporting is now! The
real battle for Iraq is the one that has started now after the war. So, to
the media: Please don't go away, stay seized with the matter!

© TFF 2003


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