TRIPOLI, Libya — On the first day of lectures since July, Tripoli University appeared a much-changed place last week. Gaudy “Free Libya” murals adorned the walls, the red-black-and-green revolutionary flag fluttered from the angular architecture, and young women outnumbered men in the busy corridors.
“A lot of guys died at the front,” said Arwa Muntasser, an 18-year-old medical student in a bright hijab and Free Libya jewelry. “A lot of my classmates were killed in the revolution.”
Their absence is the bitter price paid for the sense of anticipation tangible among teachers and students here, a nervous hope that the new era will sweep away a culture of indoctrination and corruption fostered in schools and universities by Moammar Gaddafi.
“We have 120,000 students and about 5,000 teaching staff, in a country of 6 million,” said Faisal Krekshi, Tripoli University’s new head. “This will tell you how vital this structure is. This place could be the nucleus of a rebuilt country.”
Stability is holding for the moment in Libya, which was shaken loose from Gaddafi’s 42-year grip this year by a bloody, internationally backed uprising. So the country has begun the process of rebuilding its institutions, which many believe the whimsical leader — who was killed in October — deliberately crippled to eliminate threats.
Creating a coherent army is important, if only to employ the armed revolutionaries still on the streets. But for those looking to the future, improving education is even more crucial — and more difficult.
“Gaddafi had this system so that the end result would be that people would be ignorant, so they would not be educated, so they would not be against him,” said Khadija bin Musa, who teaches computer engineering at Tripoli University.
She said that, under Gaddafi, she was forced to use what she considered old-fashioned teaching methods. “The students just memorize. There is no analysis or understanding,” she said, adding that the Gaddafi government “didn’t want people to think . . . to be creative or to read.”
When Gaddafi came to power in a 1969 coup, he built universities and schools and encouraged modern teaching methods and curricula. But as he cemented his dominance, publishing his Green Book of political theory and building a cult of personality, he changed the nation’s education goals drastically.
By the 1980s, the study of English and French was forbidden, and science, mathematics and medicine were being taught with less emphasis on demonstration, according to teachers. Often, they said, students were able to pass exams by writing patriotic slogans on the page or pulling strings with a relative close to the government.
Gaddafi “didn’t want Libyan people to be talented and prosperous,” said Sammy Sunni, a 23-year-old student. “It is quite sad that someone thinks in this way. . . . It is also insanely stupid.”
In schools, reading primers featured passages from Gaddafi’s writings, while classes in Islamic studies paired his words with those of the prophet Muhammad. Younger students devoted whole weeks to singing songs about the leader, drawing pictures of him and marching through neighborhoods chanting pro-Gaddafi slogans, teachers recalled. For older ones, study of the Green Book was compulsory.
“A lot of guys died at the front,” said Arwa Muntasser, an 18-year-old medical student in a bright hijab and Free Libya jewelry. “A lot of my classmates were killed in the revolution.”
Their absence is the bitter price paid for the sense of anticipation tangible among teachers and students here, a nervous hope that the new era will sweep away a culture of indoctrination and corruption fostered in schools and universities by Moammar Gaddafi.
“We have 120,000 students and about 5,000 teaching staff, in a country of 6 million,” said Faisal Krekshi, Tripoli University’s new head. “This will tell you how vital this structure is. This place could be the nucleus of a rebuilt country.”
Stability is holding for the moment in Libya, which was shaken loose from Gaddafi’s 42-year grip this year by a bloody, internationally backed uprising. So the country has begun the process of rebuilding its institutions, which many believe the whimsical leader — who was killed in October — deliberately crippled to eliminate threats.
Creating a coherent army is important, if only to employ the armed revolutionaries still on the streets. But for those looking to the future, improving education is even more crucial — and more difficult.
“Gaddafi had this system so that the end result would be that people would be ignorant, so they would not be educated, so they would not be against him,” said Khadija bin Musa, who teaches computer engineering at Tripoli University.
She said that, under Gaddafi, she was forced to use what she considered old-fashioned teaching methods. “The students just memorize. There is no analysis or understanding,” she said, adding that the Gaddafi government “didn’t want people to think . . . to be creative or to read.”
When Gaddafi came to power in a 1969 coup, he built universities and schools and encouraged modern teaching methods and curricula. But as he cemented his dominance, publishing his Green Book of political theory and building a cult of personality, he changed the nation’s education goals drastically.
By the 1980s, the study of English and French was forbidden, and science, mathematics and medicine were being taught with less emphasis on demonstration, according to teachers. Often, they said, students were able to pass exams by writing patriotic slogans on the page or pulling strings with a relative close to the government.
Gaddafi “didn’t want Libyan people to be talented and prosperous,” said Sammy Sunni, a 23-year-old student. “It is quite sad that someone thinks in this way. . . . It is also insanely stupid.”
In schools, reading primers featured passages from Gaddafi’s writings, while classes in Islamic studies paired his words with those of the prophet Muhammad. Younger students devoted whole weeks to singing songs about the leader, drawing pictures of him and marching through neighborhoods chanting pro-Gaddafi slogans, teachers recalled. For older ones, study of the Green Book was compulsory.
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