The first issue to be discussed when dealing with building schools in post-conflict Iraq is that Iraq has been overwhelmed and devastated by the consequences of the enforcement of sanctions and the internal and external conflicts. Therefore, the need to a democratic schools, as Knapp (2007) puts it, is urgent. Iraqi individuals need to learn tolerating others and to self- actualise as well as there is a need for stimulating free and open society. Schools that are people-oriented and in which the community can participate are typical schools for the Iraqi situation. The society that should be created in Iraq must be represented in school (Kelly, 2015) where everyone is respected no matter if they are disabled, mentally impaired or they belong to a particular ethnic minority. When the school tolerates the differences of the individual it encourage the creation of a bigger society that does the same (Rammelkamp, 2015).
Iraqi government should also consider the relationship between the school building architecture and the students’ performance and behaviour. This will lead to profit and value for money because money is invested in the right place (Knapp, 2007). The different styles of learning by the students should be taken into account. The needs of the disabled children should be met in the architecture of the school building. Children’s need to play and exercise should also be reflected in the building of the school. All the other facilities such as toilets, safe and clean water, clean air, lightening, heating and individual spaces should be included. In other words, building a school is about meeting the human needs and facilitating comfortable and easy as well as healthy environment to the children (Dudek, 2014).
The most important factor in the success of a school building is the involvement of the community in the school building programme (Arthur & Wright, 2013). This will lead the use of local labour as well as local materials. The importance of the community involvement is that the local residents become an integral part of the school where they care about it and consider it their responsibility. This involvement strengthens the students’ ties with the school, and they deem it as their second home. Parents will feel that they are part of the teaching/learning process; the matter which stimulate the students to learn and behave well. Community should be involved in the school building at early stages because they can
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suggest issues related to the students and to the needs of the community for not only a school but an adult learning centre (Ellis, Morgan& Ken, 2013).
The process of building delivery and developing the programme as well as implementing the project will not succeed if there are no evaluating and monitoring. Reporting gaps should be an on-going process that takes place in a constructive and transparent manner is essential for the completion of the project. Funds should be disbursed in a transparent way and, more importantly, monitored way. Building school is about making value for money, so funding should be a priority, but capacity building and quality assurance should be on-going practices that support community and delivery of a good-quality infrastructure. Decentralisation is a good policy that makes the process of building a school a mutual task that everyone contributes in. The programmes scope, rationale, and objectives should be based on national policies. Decentralisation can be enhanced by increasing the role of community and development partners. Although procurement, management and accounting should meet the government systems and standards, but the involvement of the school users, children and adults, is important. Procurement should take place according to the government systems and policies. The use of procurement should be based on the value for money, compatibility with the government systems and decentralisation. The cultural context of Iraq will also play a role in the building and architecture of schools. The cultural preferences of colours, the drawings and the manifestation of the historical value of Iraq can all be used in decorating the school and relating the children with their history. It is also a way of looking at the past in a different way and restoring hope and determination inside the children. The new generation should restore their confidence in their country and the past as well as the present. The school building in Iraq can be designed in a way to accommodate celebrating the cultural and social events of the Iraqi people and those of the ethnic minorities. It is a way to learn how to tolerate other people who are different.
In fact, what is more required is in the framework mentioned above is the community participation and the use of human rights- based approach. Education quality in a country is linked with the way social systems are structured and the values that underpin these systems as well as the extent to which political mechanism allows citizen to influence the social system structure. In some countries, failures in social systems are attributed to individuals; in this case the government provides services which deal with social problems as the result of individual failures (Russell, 2009). This approach is called deficit model which does not question the mechanisms that prevent citizens from achieving leading lives. Contrary to the
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deficit model is the human rights- based approach which treats social problems as the result of socio-economic exclusion. The focus in this approach, unlike the deficit model approach, is on the structure mechanisms that prevent citizens from achieving leading lives. The human rights-based approach analyses any situation based on the country’s obligation towards its citizen to provide justice and empowerment, to provide community with the moral basis to achieve attainment (Ibid.).
UNICEF (2004) asserts that people are active participants in the process of building their development rather than passive recipients of commodities and services. This is about building local ownership and reducing marginalisation and centralisation. Hence, the community participation is essential because school brings diverse people together to form a school-community. Diverse people, different age, different gender and different race as well as different religion or sectors are replicated in and by school. This may lead to community conflict and the marginalisation of one group or another (Russell, 2009). The human rights- based approach allows a school to focus on the shared humanity of a group and decreases the violation of human rights in a school. In this case, the chances of inclusion are increased despite the differences in race, religion and sector. The human right-based approach supports the citizen understand that they are connected through humanity and helps them to claim attainment. It is worth mentioning here that when the government control increases, the community participation decreases. Colonial rules in most of the developing countries not only excluded the parents and community participation in schools but also excluded the majority of these populations from accessing education (Russell, 2009).
For education in Iraq to successful, a transfer of authority should take place from the central body to the local community. Community participation is essential in establishing schools in Iraq. This will support the conflicting groups to gather together for one or more common purposes which is about building a democratic society where everyone shares the responsibility. The human rights-based approach is also constructive in post-conflict Iraq to build individuals who have humanity in common and who are willing to restart building a society that tolerates differences in race, religion, and sector. Moreover, building a school based on the participation of community i.e. students, parents and other stakeholders will lead to the creation of satisfied users; the matter which results in more catering for the school and environment.
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However, however, the current situation in terms of Iraq school building delivery differs. There is no community or parents’ involvement in the school building delivery process. The government and the Ministry of Education supervise, plan, organise, and implement the school building delivery process without involving any other side. Schools design does not take into consideration the special needs and other measurements. The labels of the stages of school building delivery process differ, but it is agreed that this process starts with a planning stage, organising stage, and implementing stage (Bonner et al., (2011); English, 2011). In the empirical study, there are four stages that will be investigated to understand the school building delivery process. These are planning, organising, implementing and the fourth stage is legislative. In fact, the legislative stage covers the other stages because the other stage cannot be completed without applying the legislations peculiar to every stage.
As this study aims to explore the school building delivery process and identify the factors that contribute to what this process is, there is a need to review the political, economic, social and cultural state of Iraq which is the concern of the next part.