ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critical analysis of the role of identity in the education system from a conflict perspective. It examines how education and the conflict interact and draw on the theoretical literature to demonstrate possible further triggers for conflict. Consequently, any restrictions to the delivery of education are viewed by ethnic groups as deliberate threats to their linguistic or ethnic representation in the education system, regardless of the shared restrictions across the communities. Communities that wish to avoid assimilation in the school system often turn to such a system of education in order to achieve protection for their societal identity. It is worth restating at this point that the entire Iraqi education system is suffering from the status of victim to conflict and therefore lacks infrastructure and funding. The impact of ethnic identity on the education system can be seen to be interacting with the wider conflict in a number of detrimental ways.
