Displaced students in Iraq will receive grants

The council said in the month of November that Iraqi boarding students from flashpoint areas in the north and west of the country will soon begin to receive monthly grants from the Baghdad provincial council to help cover their living and studying expenses.

Council chairman Riyadh al-Adhadh told, "The provincial council has decided to award monthly grants to boarding students who have been taking shelter in the capital Baghdad and come from provinces and areas where terror groups were active."

Every displaced student will receive 150,000 dinars ($130) each, he said, noting that the decision aimed at dealing with the harsh conditions those students and their families are facing and easing the burden of living and studying costs.

"The decision includes all displaced students who have come from flashpoint provinces," he said. "We will explore the possibility of allowing their families to live with their sons in their dormitories in order to give them suitable shelter, help them withstand life's difficulties and lift the burden off their shoulders."

Students will begin receiving the grants once the state's general budget for the current year has been approved, he said, as the funds needed to carry out the decision will come from the province's annual allocation. Ghaleb al-Zameli, chair of the council's education committee, said that "the draft resolution has already been submitted to the provincial council and been approved".

"It can now enter into effect," he added.
In a past study, the council prepared a complete database of statistics on the number of displaced students living in boarding residences in Baghdad, he said. Their number amounts to more than 400 students who had come from flashpoint cities and areas, many from the city of Tal Afar in Ninawa province.
"The monthly grants will include all these students without exception and we will seek to increase the number of those benefitting from the decision and help the biggest possible number of displaced students, offering them the help they need in order to complete their studies and achieve success and excellence," al-Zameli said.
He called for the expedition of legislation of the state's general budget law for the current year, for the decision to be implemented.
The Helping Hand
Baghdad University's boarding residences manager Asir Hadi told that the department has provided boarding residences to many displaced students at the university who are from provinces where security is unstable.
"We have prepared suitable places to house the students who have joined our university and will do our very best to take in additional students after we make use of sports halls in the dormitory buildings and turn them into temporary housing facilities," he added.
The University of Baghdad's boarding residences have a total capacity of around 6,000 students, including nearly 2,000 first year students who get into the dormitories every year, he said, calling for more buildings to be opened to house students. Iraqi MP Farhad Qader of the parliamentary higher education committee said the committee sees the decision as a "positive step".
"We welcome the decision as it will help students in both the human and economic aspects and lift a large part of the studying and living costs off of them," he told. "However, we hope that the decision applies to all displaced students, from all provinces."
The MP said the committee would soon hold a series of meetings with officials from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to discuss steps to aid displaced students and improve their conditions. The ministry has already approved "the exemption of displaced students from tuition for evening studies in universities", he said, one of a series of "positive steps to support those students who come from displaced families".