BABIL, Iraq — In preparation for the start of school, authorities in Babil province have managed to evacuate displaced families from the many schools that had served as shelters, said educational supervisor Qasim Sultani in an interview with Al-Monitor.

Since the outbreak of fighting between the Iraqi army and allied militias on the one hand and the Islamic State and its allies on the other in northern and western Iraq, hundreds of families have fled conflict areas, seeking safety in the central and southern provinces. Over the summer, empty schools in Babil province, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Baghdad, received hundreds of displaced families.

The schools will be overcrowded with students for the 2014-15 academic year, following the cabinet's recommendation that the Ministry of Education enroll displaced children and youths. According to Hashim Sultani, a professor at the Babil province education directorate, doing so will put the average number of students per class at 50 to 60. He told Al-Monitor that the recommendation is “an inevitable solution.”

Sultani noted, “The new academic year will officially start on Sept. 21 … The displaced families will be moved from the schools to mosques, enclosed halls and some municipality buildings." He said, “In the city of Hillah, the capital of Babil province, the famous Babil Hotel was evacuated to host displaced families,” so the schools could be readied for the academic year. According to Sultani, only one school — the Manama school in the small town of Hamza al-Gharbi, 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Babil, which has 10 elementary schools — will be used to accommodate the displaced.