Reply #31: Normality returning to Libya as schools reopen

[tabatha]

Posted on September 29, 2011 by KLN1
By: Michel Cousins

At Al-Shaheed Yusif Burahil School in downtown Benghazi the cries of excited boys playing football in the school playground can be heard in the streets outside. It is a sound heard the world over. But not for months in Libya.

http://feb17.info/news/normality-returning-to-libya-as-... /

Apart from some Qur’anic verses, Al-Houni’s office walls are almost bare. A picture of Qaddafi previously had a prominent place. So far nothing has replaced it. In fact pictures of Qaddafi used to hang everywhere. “We had to have a picture of Qaddafi in every room, sometimes more than one.” No longer. The brooding omnipresence has been exorcised from the building — and not just from classroom walls.

“He used to be mentioned in every book we had to use”, the headmaster said, “even in the geography books!” All mention of him is now obliterated, literally — blanked out from the textbooks. That is a bit of a problem in the history classes because it was almost all about Qaddafi. There was little about Libya’s past prior to him seizing power in 1969 and absolutely nothing about independence and the period of the monarchy. That will have to wait until new textbooks are issued next year. “But the teachers are telling students about the revolution,” the headmaster enthused.

Al-Houni says it has had a profound effect on the school. “The atmosphere has changed,” he says. “The teachers are more giving, more dedicated. They are determined to give their best.”