Overcrowding leaves Iraq short 10K+ schools
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq is short more than 10,000 schools, forcing the country to rely on about 1,000 mud-built and caravan schools, Education Ministry spokesperson Karim Al-Sayyid told Shafaq News on Wednesday.
The shortage has also pushed some schools to operate double and triple shifts, reducing the time available for lessons and activities as several groups of students share the same buildings each day. UNICEF has previously warned that multiple-shift schooling in Iraq reduces students’ contact time with teachers and can hurt learning outcomes.
About 1,700 schools entered service last year under the Chinese-backed school construction project, Al-Sayyid estimated, while another 700 were completed through other programs.
In January 2026, the Education Ministry said fully eliminating overcrowding would require more than 10,000 additional schools, particularly in Baghdad, Nineveh, and Basra.
