Teacher Shortage Hits Hard in Maidan Wardak

Abdollah, an18-year-old high school student, sat outside his house in the winter sun, covered with a blanket against the cold, and studied a book about biology he bought in the market.



“There are no textbooks in schools,” he complained, adding that they also have no professional teachers, no attendance sheets and no order to their day.



His criticism is shared by many students in Maidan Wardak province, 25 kilometres west of the Kabul, who say that the lack of qualified teachers, proper educational resources and discipline in schools has severely impacted on their education.



“What will the school's achievement be where the teacher is more illiterate than the students?" Abdollah asked.



Maidan Wardak province used to be a stronghold for the Hizb-e-Islami party, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and the Taleban, which still has a presence there. Clashes between government and opposition forces and frequent civilian casualties, along with a lack of resources, have badly affected the education system in the eight districts of the province.



“Most professional teachers have either taken refuge outside the province, been martyred during the wars, or worked for foreign organisations due to economic problems at the moment,” Hafizollah Waziri, Maidan Wardak director of education, said



Waziri told IWPR that there were 331 active schools in the province, employing 4,375 teachers - but accepted that there were problems arising from the lack of trained personnel. Only 510 teachers in the province were qualified, he said.



Ata Mohammad Qaneh, deputy spokesman for the ministry of education, said the shortage of professional teachers was a nationwide problem. Out of 175,000 teachers across Afghanistan, more than 70 per cent have not graduated from training college, while some only made it as far as sixth grade in school.



A 21-year-old student from a teachers' training institute told IWPR that he still knows nothing about teaching, even though he is due to graduate next year.



“There is no education in our teacher training institute,” he said. “Everyone does whatever he wishes. There is no control by the administration. The teachers do not come on time. If an explosion happens somewhere, the teacher training institute and schools are closed for a few days. I wish I had taken some other job from the very beginning.”



Qaneh said that there were plans for more professional teachers to be introduced to Maidan Wardak next year, with a teachers' training centre to be established in each district of the province. Textbooks were also being printed and would be available in schools next year, he added.



Qari Abdolsamad Ahmadi, director of the province’s teacher training institute, acknowledged that they lacked proper conditions for training students, although he said the institute had sent their teachers to three seminars last year to learn new education methods.



He said that a building for the local institute was yet to be completed, despite two years of construction work. Classes are held in different rented houses, which he said had caused chaos.



Qaneh told IWPR that the construction work had been delayed due to security problems and the bad winter weather, but that it would be completed next spring.



But students have little faith in these promises.



Mohammad, a twelfth grader, at a local school, said, “The promises about professional teachers, provision of textbooks on time to the schools and construction of school buildings are given every year by the officials, but nothing has happened in practice yet. Who should we trust, because the officials say one thing but do the other?"



Students’ parents are also unhappy with the situation.



The father of a 12-year-old boy at the same school told IWPR, "When my son comes from school, I ask him whether they studied anything. He answers ‘father, we studied for one or two hours, but our teachers were absent in other hours’. What do you think the students learn when they study for one or two hours out of six hours? It is not even clear what kind of classes they have taken.”



Fahim Farhad is an IWPR trainee.