article · Issue No. 10, October 1949 · p. 40 p. 41

The Adil National School in Baghdad

The Editors

مدرسة عادل الاهلية في بغداد · التحرير

Mrs. Zuhura Adil, as she spoke to us about her school, spoke as though of a piece of herself, of something she had reared with all the care and love she possessed. And that was only natural, for Mrs. Adil has given much, kept long vigils, and worked without pause, until she brought her school to the place it has reached.

"...That was seventeen years ago, in 1933, when Mrs. Adil first thought of opening a kindergarten in the city of Baghdad...

The kindergarten began in her house in the Saadoun quarter with eight children, and no sooner had the year ended than their number had reached forty!...

In the second year the demand was encouraging, which led her to rent a house set apart for the school, and the enrollment figures went on climbing steadily.

In 1937 the school numbered 120 children
" 1941 — 350 children
" 1944 — 750 children
" 1949 — 1,200 children

The school now numbers more than one thousand two hundred pupils... and they have buildings, most of them erected especially for this purpose... The school enjoys a fine reputation: the rate of success in the government examinations exceeds 97%, a rate no other school in Baghdad has attained."

Whoever has lived in Baghdad and followed the development of its social movements cannot but show his admiration and esteem for an institute of mixed instruction meeting with such success!... and for boys and girls coming in equal proportion, and from the three faiths, to drink of its learning!...

And it is a happy sign that the government appreciates this institute, and appreciates the abundant good that comes to Iraq from its wholesome seeds, granting it its rewards continually, in encouragement and in recognition of its services and its excellent results.

Mrs. Zuhura Adil has declared that there is an intention to erect a building reserved for the kindergarten, which the little children will share with no one; and to this end she will travel to America herself to visit the newest kindergartens, before she lays her final plans for this great project.

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