Education minister has helped bring millions of children into school system against a backdrop of conflict and Taliban threats
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| Afghan girls attend a home economics class at the Speena Adi school in Kabul. Photograph: Christian Science Monitor/Getty |
Afghanistan is on track to bring 2 million registered but absentee schoolchildren, many of them girls, into the school system by the end of next year, according to the country's education minister.
In a relentlessly upbeat progress report, Farooq Wardak, who has been in charge of education since 2008, said 1 million children would be absorbed this year and a similar number next year.
Should this happen, it would mark a remarkable turnaround for Afghanistan's schools. The numbers are certainly impressive as Wardak rattles them off. In 2001, when the Taliban were overthrown, there were fewer than 1 million children in school, very few of them girls. Now there are 10.5 million, 42% of them girls, although some question whether the number of girls in school is that high. As for teachers, there are 220,000, 33% female, compared with 20,000 and 16,600 schools, compared with 3,000.
But Wardak's rosiness has to be set against a politically uncertain backdrop. Presidential and provincial elections are scheduled for April and, more significantly, tens of thousands of Nato troops will withdraw this year. But Wardak is nothing if not positive.
Bravado or not, what is fact is that the ministry of education has been holding talks with the Taliban since 2010 on reopening schools in areas under insurgent control. Despite the absence of a comprehensive deal, a clutch of local agreements have been reached, the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) said in a report last June. As a result, attacks on schools have declined.
"The scale of attacks has been reduced considerably," Wardak said. "At the beginning of 2008, every day you hear that one or two schools were being abandoned or locked. But since 2008, the trend has been reversed – every day one or two schools have been reopened. Cumulatively, we have reopened 700 of the 1,150 schools that were closed."
But violence against staff has continued. Wardak blames the attacks on foreign Taliban, organised criminal groups or al-Qaida. "Attacks on educational personnel continue and, despite claims to the contrary, some Taliban sources admit that at least some of the attacks on schools are being ordered from above," the AAN said.
The fragility of the truce was thrown into stark relief in April 2012, when the Taliban ordered a crackdown on schools in Ghazni province in retaliation for the governor's motorbike ban. The decision was not well received. It triggered an uprising among rural communities, which demanded that 48 schools reopen. Smaller protests occurred in Wardak and Nangarhar provinces, when the Taliban destroyed or closed schools.
Even in the absence of violence, there have been complaints of the Taliban's heavy hand on schools in areas they control. In Ghazni, villagers allege that the Taliban have indoctrinated children to become suicide bombers; Taliban teachers are accused of spouting propaganda and using schools as recruitment grounds. At a less extreme level, villagers have complained about concessions to the Taliban on hiring teachers.
The Taliban have set strict conditions for the schools: books, teachers and lessons must be under the group's observation; teachers are not permitted to educate students of the opposite sex; the curriculum must focus on the Qur'an and Arabic subjects. Subjects that are against jihad, women's rights (as defined by the Taliban) and Muslims are not allowed.
Wardak, however, firmly rejects the notion that concessions have been made. "The curriculum is not political," he said. "It is purely focused on the kid being educated with the knowledge to help them acquire higher education anywhere in the world. There are absolutely no concessions on women teachers and girls going to school, absolutely not."
As for providing an education for children who have missed out on schooling, Wardak says they are being reached through community-based and mosque-based education and "accelerated learning". He added: "For those ladies who are about the age of seven to 12, we teach them a curriculum of three years in nine months. According to their age, they are capable of absorbing the lessons of the first three grades in nine months."
Those who do not want to pursue their education, but are satisfied with literacy, are provided with skills training so they can earn a livelihood. Wardak said he intended to finish the job he started. "I have begun so many things in education, I want to see them completed.
"One of my dreams for education is that through educating the human resources of Afghanistan, I take Afghanistan from being an aid-receiving country to an aid-providing nation, seen as a country standing on its own two feet. This was my dream. If I can accomplish this, it will be good, if not I have taken many steps in that direction."
In a relentlessly upbeat progress report, Farooq Wardak, who has been in charge of education since 2008, said 1 million children would be absorbed this year and a similar number next year.
Should this happen, it would mark a remarkable turnaround for Afghanistan's schools. The numbers are certainly impressive as Wardak rattles them off. In 2001, when the Taliban were overthrown, there were fewer than 1 million children in school, very few of them girls. Now there are 10.5 million, 42% of them girls, although some question whether the number of girls in school is that high. As for teachers, there are 220,000, 33% female, compared with 20,000 and 16,600 schools, compared with 3,000.
But Wardak's rosiness has to be set against a politically uncertain backdrop. Presidential and provincial elections are scheduled for April and, more significantly, tens of thousands of Nato troops will withdraw this year. But Wardak is nothing if not positive.
"Neither I nor Afghan society are worried," he said last week, while in London for a meeting of education ministers at the World Education Forum. "Neither the US nor Nato, the Afghan army or police have been providing security for the schools, rather it is the communities that are safeguarding the schools. We may not be there, American forces may not be there, but the community, the people will be there … I am not at all concerned about the protection of the schools because I have invested in my communities and that investment will pay off."
Bravado or not, what is fact is that the ministry of education has been holding talks with the Taliban since 2010 on reopening schools in areas under insurgent control. Despite the absence of a comprehensive deal, a clutch of local agreements have been reached, the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) said in a report last June. As a result, attacks on schools have declined.
"The scale of attacks has been reduced considerably," Wardak said. "At the beginning of 2008, every day you hear that one or two schools were being abandoned or locked. But since 2008, the trend has been reversed – every day one or two schools have been reopened. Cumulatively, we have reopened 700 of the 1,150 schools that were closed."
But violence against staff has continued. Wardak blames the attacks on foreign Taliban, organised criminal groups or al-Qaida. "Attacks on educational personnel continue and, despite claims to the contrary, some Taliban sources admit that at least some of the attacks on schools are being ordered from above," the AAN said.
The fragility of the truce was thrown into stark relief in April 2012, when the Taliban ordered a crackdown on schools in Ghazni province in retaliation for the governor's motorbike ban. The decision was not well received. It triggered an uprising among rural communities, which demanded that 48 schools reopen. Smaller protests occurred in Wardak and Nangarhar provinces, when the Taliban destroyed or closed schools.
Even in the absence of violence, there have been complaints of the Taliban's heavy hand on schools in areas they control. In Ghazni, villagers allege that the Taliban have indoctrinated children to become suicide bombers; Taliban teachers are accused of spouting propaganda and using schools as recruitment grounds. At a less extreme level, villagers have complained about concessions to the Taliban on hiring teachers.
The Taliban have set strict conditions for the schools: books, teachers and lessons must be under the group's observation; teachers are not permitted to educate students of the opposite sex; the curriculum must focus on the Qur'an and Arabic subjects. Subjects that are against jihad, women's rights (as defined by the Taliban) and Muslims are not allowed.
Wardak, however, firmly rejects the notion that concessions have been made. "The curriculum is not political," he said. "It is purely focused on the kid being educated with the knowledge to help them acquire higher education anywhere in the world. There are absolutely no concessions on women teachers and girls going to school, absolutely not."
As for providing an education for children who have missed out on schooling, Wardak says they are being reached through community-based and mosque-based education and "accelerated learning". He added: "For those ladies who are about the age of seven to 12, we teach them a curriculum of three years in nine months. According to their age, they are capable of absorbing the lessons of the first three grades in nine months."
Those who do not want to pursue their education, but are satisfied with literacy, are provided with skills training so they can earn a livelihood. Wardak said he intended to finish the job he started. "I have begun so many things in education, I want to see them completed.
"One of my dreams for education is that through educating the human resources of Afghanistan, I take Afghanistan from being an aid-receiving country to an aid-providing nation, seen as a country standing on its own two feet. This was my dream. If I can accomplish this, it will be good, if not I have taken many steps in that direction."
While education has been a success in Afghanistan, some worry about the future. "As insecurity grows, more and more parents are reluctant to send their children to school and this is affecting girls's education," said Oxfam's policy adviser in Kabul, Elizabeth Cameron.
