Kids of New Libya: New values for ‘green’ minds

Libya’s record high 90 per cent literacy rate, one of the undeniable achievements of the ousted Colonel Gaddafi, is now being challenged by the controversial education policies of the new leaders. ­Revolution fever has subsided, but not all Libyan kids are coming back to school. Some parents are unhappy with the values their children will be taught. A new day in the new Libya traditionally starts with an old ritual. Students assemble before classes to see a new flag being hoisted and to sing a new national anthem. Like the revolutionary tricolor, the anthem is a flashback to the pre-Gaddafi era, with a few verses tweaked to represent the notion of the country’s recent liberation. For decades under Gaddafi’s rule, Libyan students had to memorize long passages from his Green Book without ever questioning them, and it seems like this tradition may continue under the new Libyan authorities as well. Children are too young to understand the meaning and the bloody history of this revolutionary anthem, but they are already expected to know it by heart

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