Iraq’s Diyala: More than 30,000 students back to schools in ISIS-free areas

More than 30,000 students, who were internally displaced, have now returned to schools after the areas in which their homes were located were liberated more than a year and a half ago from ISIS in the Iraqi eastern province of Diyala, an education committee said on Tuesday.

The liberation of Diyala took place in January 2015.

“The education committee in Diyala’s provincial council together with the General Directorate for Education have succeeded in securing the return of more than 30,000 displaced students to schools in the liberated areas with the launch of the academic year 2016-2017,” head of the committee Ahmed al-Rabii told the Arabic language website of Al-Sumaria satellite station.

The education committee stressed that the return of the students to schools was essential in reviving the liberated areas.

“The return of thousands of displaced students to school is a success that was achieved due to the cooperation of all government parties,” Rabii said.

“Dozens of schools in the liberated areas will open their doors to students after ensuring all basic needs,” Rabii said, but pointed out that “the educational institutions in the liberated areas had suffered from serious damage due to the operations undertaken by extremist groups after June 2014.”

ISIS spearheaded a militant offensive that began in the northern city of Mosul in June 2014 and swept down to overrun much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland.