Education Among Top Concerns

Jan Bibi is a widow from Musa Khil in Khost province who has no home and no money. But her greatest hardship, she said, is that her children can’t go to school.

“I am a homeless widow - how can I afford to educate my children?” she said. There is no school or teachers in her village, and the only way her children can get an education is for them to move to Khost city. But since even feeding them is a struggle, she has no money relocate.

Jan Bibi’s only hope is to take part in the presidential election. She said she’s going to vote based on which candidate will help her children to be educated so that they can serve Afghanistan.

Jan Bibi’s children are among millions across the country who are lacking a proper schooling. In a survey by IWPR in mid-August in 21 provinces, 11 per cent of respondents said education was a top concern - ranking fourth among people’s list of worries nationwide, equal to water shortages and economic problems.

There are scores of problems associated with education in Afghanistan. Among them are: hundreds of villages have no schools at all; in the majority of existing schools, children sit on dirt floors under a plastic sheet, or with no covering at all to protect them from the elements; classes that do exist are very crowded, with as many as 50 to 70 students in a classroom.

In addition, the country would need another 30,000 teachers in order to bring class sizes down to 40; seventy-five per cent of the nearly 102,000 teachers have neither completed high school nor two years of teacher training, the minimum professional qualifications; many teachers have abandoned their jobs due to low pay; most schools have no chairs or desks for students and scant lesson materials; and though girls were allowed to attend school in the spring of 2002 for the first time in five years, some are now back at home because of repeated attacks on their schools.

While about 5 million children are in classes, at least another million have no access to school, according to education officials.

In Mazar-e-Sharif, a 20-year-old from Qurishi Gag village of Dawlat Abad district complained, “I am not literate, because there is no school in our village.”

A woman in the 4th district of Kandahar city said education was vital to the country’s progress. “The source of all problems and trouble in our country is illiteracy,” she said.

For those who do attend school, the lack of qualified teachers and adequate facilities means only minimal education is actually occurring.

Majgan, 18, said teachers in her school in Kabul seem more concerned about discipline than education. “If we come one minute late to school, we are beaten [by teachers standing at the gate],” she said. “Then when we go to class, there is no teacher and no lesson.”

Of the 7,137 schools in the country, “5,384 schools do not have buildings, and the students are studying in the open air”, said Mohammad Azim Karbalaie, director of planning in the education ministry.

Jamila, a high school student in the Ghazi Adi district of Kabul, complained, “When we leave the house in the morning, our uniforms are [clean], but when we leave school, they’ve become [covered with dust]. For God’s sake, how long will we study on the soil?”

The shortage of classrooms has forced primary schools to offer classes in two sessions, with some students attending in the morning and others in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, some students are forced to walk great distances to get to school

Even in Logar, a province adjoining Kabul, some girls must walk 6 kilometres to school, a local principal said.

In Badakhshan province, “until last year, the children of Baloche Bala in Kisham district were walking 4.5 to 5 kilometres to school”, said Colonel Muhibullah, an officer of the Afghan National Army and Kisham district resident. A school is scheduled to be built in the district, but for now the children are studying in a corner of a mosque.

“If there is a school, then there is no teacher; if there is a teacher, then no lesson materials,” said Khir Mohammad Sher Zad, a teacher in the teacher training department of Badghis province, Qalae-naw district.

In rural Afghanistan, the problems for girls are especially severe.

Ger Shah BaBa girls’ high school in Badakhshan province was burned to the ground, said Engineer “Mistari” Muhibullah. The high school was being rebuilt, but those who oppose girls’ education repeatedly threw grenades to try to destroy it again.

Those girls who do attend classes feel threatened.

A girl in Kandahar city said, “When we come out from our houses to study, people are looking at us [disapprovingly]. Instead of encouraging women to study, they threaten them.”

Meanwhile, the vast majority of educators in the country fail to meet even the minimum education requirements necessary to become a teacher. One education official conceded many were hired because of the acute shortage of teachers.

A farmer in the Takhta Pul district of Kandahar said the teachers are so irresponsible that they behave like opium addicts, not turning up for class for weeks at a time. “The government should hire good teachers for us,” he said.

Because of the years of fighting and the Taleban’s ban on girls attending schools, millions who are already over 18 have lost out on education.

“Our school period passed in war,” said Rafiqullah, 18, who lives in Noor gal, in Kunar province. “Now we want to study; but there is no school for us. Why doesn’t the government care about the young people like us?”

Abdul Zahir Eztrabi is an IWPR trainer in Herat.