“There is no school to study. We want a school set up for us. We have come here and there are only Arabic schools. When is that going to end? We want them to open a Kurdish school for us.” Ghariba Salim, a schoolgirl lamented.
Mothers at the camp worry for their children’s education as they don’t know when they might be able to return to their town, 65 kilometers south of Kirkuk.
They understand even if they return, there is no place where their children could resume their studies as based on eyewitness accounts around 21 schools have been burned down in the town by the Shiite militia groups.
“I am really worried about my children because they cannot go to school. My daughter passed grade 6 and cannot sit in the next class,” complained a woman, saying her three other kids have also been deprived from school.
According to data published by the Garmiyan Humanitarian Affairs Department, 4,000 Kurdish students and 654 teachers were displaced after they fled their homes fearing abuses and retribution at the hands of Shiite militiamen.
The Garmiyan Education Department has handed out admission forms to all the students displaced to the region in order to separate Arabic and Kurdish studies programs.
“We will certainly execute our responsibilities. We are worried about these displaced persons and will not let their future ruined. We will provide their needs no matter how,” Dara Ahmed, head of the Garmiyan Education Department, told Rudaw.
Ahmed went on to add "We are going to distribute the students over our schools in Kalar and Kifri and those remaining will be sent to the Tazade camp where Arab displaced persons are sheltered in.”
Some 6,120 families were displaced from Tuz Khurmatu to Garmiyan. The population of the town is 180,000 people, of whom 70,000 are Kurds.
Iraqi forces and Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi took control of Tuz Khurmatu, from the Peshmerga on October 16.
Several rights organizations reported in the past indiscriminate attacks against Kurdish inhabitants of the town, arson, looting and burning their houses.
