4-12-05, 9:02 am

From The Guardian

 Mahdy Ali Lafta is an Iraqi teacher. But in 1979, 10 years into his career in Baghdad schools, Saddam Hussein came to power and Mr Lafta, because he wouldn't support the dictator, was forced out of his job. He spent the Saddam years teaching friends, family and neighbours, and doing a little private tuition. Mostly, he found other ways to make money, like driving a taxi in the city.

Tens of thousands of teachers were forced out of their jobs in Iraq in 1979. Thousands more followed during the 1990s as Saddam diverted the country's cash to fight his wars and build his palaces. Schools and universities, once the pride of the country, went into serious decline. Teachers' salaries went down to $3 a month, forcing many of them out of the profession in order to feed their families.

Mr Lafta, 57, is married, has a 15-year-old son, and lives in Baghdad, where, following the fall of Saddam, he now does something once unthinkable. He is head of the Iraqi Teachers' Union (ITC), set up for all of Baghdad's teachers east of the river Tigris. We meet in London at the end of a week-long trip to attend teachers' conferences as a guest of the TUC. He speaks via a translator, Abdullah Muhsin, the spokesman for the ITC, and Iraqi Federatin, of Trade Unions in London.

How would he describe the state of Iraqi education when Saddam fell? 'In one word? Disastrous,' he says.

'From the mid-1980s to his [Saddam's] fall not one school was built. Schools were taken by the police forcing students out under the notion that they would help protect the nation. Education was in a very bad state. There were 50/60 children in a class. In the 1970s illiteracy had been eradicated. Now 51% of girls can read and write when they leave school and 34% of boys,' he says.

'When the regime fell we wanted to build a new trade union for education and the welfare of teachers. But not an ideological union; an educational union.' Four months after Saddam fell he was elected to his current position.

On September 29 2003, the Iraqi executive put in place after the US and British invasion issued a decree stating that all teachers who had lost their jobs during Saddam's regime should be reinstated and, as Mr Lafta puts it, 'given back their dignity'. He along with thousands others went to the ministry of education to accept the offer.

Now his union, the Iraqi government and others are working to piece back together the education system. It's a difficult process, but there have been some quick fixes. Today, the schools are totally different places to what they were like under Saddam. 'Teachers who were earning $3 now get £300. This is a huge motivation for people to work hard and improve their skills and retrain.

'The students are happier now. They go to school and get involved more. And parents do too. They come to school meetings, the students and parents and teachers all talk to one another. This never happened before. We live in a more open, democratic and free society - relatively speaking - and people sense this.'

But there are still significant barriers, the main one being the infrastructure of the schools. Although there are now more teachers, there are no more classrooms in which to teach the pupils, so classes have remained at the 50 or 60 pupil level. Mr Lafta says a new curriculum is needed, and teachers need formal training. They currently have to have a degree, but do not go through any training.

The union is hoping to be key driver in changing that. But it is still finding its feet. 'We have started from scratch,' says Mr Lafta. 'Under Saddam Hussein there was no union. Unions represented the state and the government. When we started building we lacked the knowledge and the understanding. But it is also cultural. People don't understand what a union is. They think unions control rather than serve. It's part of the legacy of Saddam.'

But like all organisations and individuals in Iraq there are still some very basic jobs they have to do. Like trying to help their members stay alive while terrorism and insurgents exist in the country. Among the 125 Iraqis who died in a suicide bombing in Hilla in February, around 50 were newly qualified teachers who were queuing to register their health certificates so they could begin work.

'They were new teachers, slaughtered, killed. Young people,' says Mr Lafta. 'These extremists do not only kill teachers, but children and whole families. They focus on politicians, but they kill anyone. It won't be safe until Iraq has sovereignty with a democratic and accountable government and constitution.'

Which brings us to a difficult question. Is Iraq better now than under Saddam? 'Certainly,' replies Mr Lafta. 'But the people of Iraq did not want the war. Which nation would want to see itself occupied with no sovereignty or freedom? But it was Saddam who brought this upon us.

'The Iraqis should not be made victims again by the occupation. Iraq has become a subject of international debate. It is open to the world to see. We fought Saddam Hussein and many died, now we want to build our nation. Where better to start but with our schools and universities? We need solidarity for that.'

He pauses, then adds: 'We should focus on the good news too. The heroic acts of the civil society, of men and women who work hard and sometimes pay the highest price. Of the teachers who continued to teach through those years, and those who want to help rebuild the country now. That's worth telling.'

Before our interview Mr Lafta had wondered around an exhibition of Spitting Image puppets in the Guardian's newsroom. He was transfixed by the image of Saddam, grotesquely out of proportion and all the more recognisable for it, nestled among sketches of Lady Thatcher, Ronald Regan and Osama Bin Laden.

Reflecting on it, Mr Lafta shivers. 'He's the beast, and even an insult to the beast doesn't destroy the fear of that beast. I look at that and I think of mass graves and atrocities and for me, someone who loves teaching, I think of the damage to education.

'All those feelings, but I also feel happy that he can be depicted like that. That it's allowed. The rest look like saints compared with him.'