'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎265v] (533/862)

ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC LIFE
406
seems to have lapsed. This system applies only to the primary schools;
in secondary and higher education there is no attempt to separate
members of the different communities.
Adults. The most remarkable educational development of the
early days of the Iraqi State was the establishment of the Mahad al
Ilmi, a society for providing reading matter for its members and for
organizing lectures for adults and evening classes for illiterates.
Founded in Baghdad early in 1922, its success was immediate. It
spread at once to the provinces, despite discouragement by the
Government which suspected it of political designs. This discourage
ment had the effect of concentrating its activities on education in the
narrow sense. Within two years it claimed more than 5,000 members
distributed over 40 centres. These numbers were later reduced be
cause the founders lost interest, but rose again after the classes had
passed entirely under government control. With government en
couragement and the assistance of the Ministry of Education and the
municipalities, many new activities were rendered possible. In 1924
the Mahad al Ilmi opened a commercial school and night classes for
working women, and by 1940, 157 schools for illiterates existed,
attended by over 9,000 persons.
Higher Education
A beginning was made with this when in 1924 the Law School, a
survival from Turkish days, hitherto under the control of the Minis
try of Justice, was transferred to the Ministry of Education and
steps were taken to reorganize it and raise its status. This was more
an institution for higher studies than a school of law in the strict
sense. Admission was limited to graduates from the secondary
schools, and it was said at the time that its programme was too wide
to produce really competent lawyers and too legal to provide a good
general education.
Iraq has still no university, despite ambitious schemes for the
foundation of one, but there is a College of Medicine (331 students)
(p. 409) and a College of Pharmacy (113 students), a Higher Institute
for Training Teachers (321 students), a College of Law (541 students)
developed from the Law School, all co-educational, and a Military
College supported by its own secondary school (p. 398). A number
of promising students are sent to the American University at Beirut
or to England for their higher education. Some students proceeded
to European universities at their own expense. Thus in 1924 there
were four Iraqi students at the University of Oxford, one or two at