BAGHDAD, July 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq's education ministry announced Friday it planned to send three million textbooks to schoolchildren in the country's northern Kurdish provinces, news agencies reported.
Hussein Mohammad Kadduri, head of the ministry's Kurdish studies department, told Al-Iraq newspaper that the books will be delivered on July 21st to Arbil, Sulaymaniya, and Dahuk - three provinces which have been controlled by Kurdish factions since 1991 in defiance of Baghdad.
The move was "testimony to President Saddam Hussein's interest in his Kurdish sons and their culture, including knowledge of the Kurdish language in teaching," Kadduri said.
Kadduri added that the books would help Kurdish children further pursue their education despite the harsh resource deficits resulting from the U.N. embargo, in force since August 1990.
Iraq has sent textbooks before. According to official figures, Iraqi authorities have now sent more than 8.5 million schoolbooks to Iraqi Kurdistan since 1994.
