Does less knowledge mean more comfort?

Mobile phones - literacy not required...

The recent history of education in Iraq is full of ups and downs, and illiteracy, especially for women, remains a problem.

I’d like to imagine seeing life and the world like through the eyes of an uneducated person. But I think this is much harder than imagining it through a genius’ eyes. I know so many uneducated people – the only thing they can read and understand is the clock. I wonder how they can use mobile phones…? They can use their contacts to dial, and they seem to know who is calling them! Maybe after lots of mistakes, they just figure out how to use their phones. In fact, it could even be a kind of adventure for them!
Maybe when you get tired of what you’re doing or when your tendency to think too much makes you unhappy, you wish you were one of the uneducated people – that you knew nothing. I think sometimes you’re luckier to have less knowledge. I would say, “Less knowledge means more comfort.” That is why I think that the less educated do enjoy life much more than those with an academic background.

On average, the most uneducated people are among the seniors, especially among older women. Men always had a better and more comfortable life in the Middle East because of their unlimited freedoms. In my third entry, I talked about education for girls starting with the very young and showed connections between our system and problems within our society.

Some have to take out a loan to cover monthly expenses - even for basics

At the moment, we have obvious educational gaps among young people. Many of them have not been to school for various reasons. Many had to work for their families from an early age, and some of the families did not enroll their kids in school because they did not think that the school would teach their children what they needed to learn. Or they thought that the government wouldn’t be able to give them a job in the future anyway.

Another issue is that many in the young generation leave school and start doing another job because they can’t earn enough money monthly even if they were to get a job after graduating. An obvious example is that new teachers earn about $500 a month, but if you work as a freelance worker, you would earn$25 per day, totaling $750 per month. Many people think that they are right to quit school because the salary system for government jobs is not fair. Your salary does not depend on how many hours of work you do per week, but, rather, depends on what role you have or where you work. There are fears of getting old and realizing that you have spent your whole life on a governmental assignment, but you’re still dreaming of life’s basic necessaries like having a car, a normal house and enough money to get by. Some have to take out loans just for living expenses, so it’s clear that saving money doesn’t even come into question.