Start of school seen as major test for Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's new school year is approaching, and there are more than the usual back-to-school jitters in Baghdad, even for a war zone.

When classes begin Wednesday, Iraqi and U.S. officials will be watching to see whether Iraq's parents feel secure enough about the country's future and confident enough in the new government to send their children to school after a summer of unprecedented sectarian violence.

The government is predicting they will. It's forecasting that in Baghdad, 50,000 more high school students will show up for the 2006-2007 school year than the 505,000 the Ministry of Education said were registered last year.

But interviews with parents reveal ambivalence. Many who fled Iraq in February to escape sectarian violence after a Shiite Muslim mosque was bombed in Samarra haven't returned, and some who have said they didn't bring their children with them.

"I think the situation this year is going to be worse," said taxi driver Safa Alrubaie, who left his school-age son and young daughter with relatives in Syria after a vacation. "I will not be comfortable sending him to school this year."

Read the rest at the San Jose Mercury News