The position of Education in Afganistan-2010

 

·          Illiteracy runs rampant in Afghanistan with some 90% of rural women unable to read or write at a functional level. A similar problem also exists for many of the men in rural and semi-urban areas.

 

·          Only 24 per cent of Afghans above the age of 15 can read and write, with much lower literacy rates among women and nomadic populations.

 

·          Many schools are in a dilapidated state: maintenance, repairs and painting are seldom accepted by the Ministry of Education as their responsibility.

 

·          Few schools have surrounding walls. That has a particularly strong impact on the enrolment of girls, as parents often want them to study in a more hygienic, protective, and sheltered area.

 

·          In many conservative parts of the country parents will not send their girls to school unless there are women teachers. There are schools, but it takes a strong father to send his daughter to class. Afghanistan needs people to fight against the tradition that girls stay at home.

 

·          The problem enrolling of girls is further compounded by the lack of women teachers. According to one international aid agency, “only about one quarter of the teachers in Afghanistan are women”, of particular importance in the teaching of very young children, and most are in urban and city areas.

 

·          It has also been stated in Afghanistan, by an Afghan doctor no less, that a trained midwife in Kabul prefers to be unemployed and without a job rather than go to a rural area! Most midwives are urban based. The same can be so often said for female teachers!

 

 “If women are not part of decision-making, decisions will be made by men who do not understand women's problems, and those men will never address these problems.”

(Dr. Sima Samar: Chairperson of Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and Human Rights advocate. 28.3.07

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Investment in Vocational training is essential. Training in a trade produces a skill for life. It is hands as well as brains that will help to re-build Afghanistan.

Over the years it has been Afghan hands that have helped to build and construct hospitals, schools, dig canals and wells and cultivate fields, a fact which is not always recognised. Afghan brains have helped to propose appropriate projects for their people. However, much of this still has to be carefully funded.