With the unrelenting security concerns regularly forcing classes to be canceled, many of his teachers are making up for lost lessons by passing out handwritten lectures to be studied at home, he said. Others are charging for private tutoring sessions at students' homes to fill in the gaps. Qassim said he has already paid about $55, a substantial sum here, for four private lessons.

The school has abandoned its traditional small graduation ceremony for fear it will be targeted by extremists, Qassim said.

If he manages to graduate, he hopes to leave Iraq but worries that his education has suffered so badly he will never be able to compete with students abroad.

Though he seethes with envy when he thinks of the relatively easy life of students in America, he hopes eventually to get a scholarship there.

"I want ... to show the Americans the difficulties I had to overcome because of their government's policy," he said.