THE JOURNEY OF EDUCATION CONTINUES IN
AFGHANISTAN
Where We Were?
Statistics below illustrate a tip of the iceberg in 2001:
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Less than a million boys, enrolled in 3,400 general schools, taught by
20,700 male teachers in a country with 30 million population
No standard national curricula or textbooks;
Only four Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) in four provinces with a total of
400 male students and 50 male lecturers;
38 partly active Technical and Vocational schools accommodating 1,500
male students;
20,000 male adults receiving literacy training;
Only 7,900 students enrolled in 15 institutions of higher education.
Where We Are Now?
Since 2002, the education sector has undergone substantial reforms and
development. Below is a comparison between 2001 and 2011:
- An eight-fold increase in student enrollment to 7.8 million, 2.96 millions
(38%) girls, who attend 13,448 general schools;
- An over nine-fold increase in the number of teachers to a total of 186,000
(31% female);
- A three-fold increase in state-supported Islamic schools to 775 providing
Islamic education opportunities to 197,600 students, 13% of them female;
- New national curricula for General education, teacher education, Islamic
education, technical education and literacy developed based on modern
pedagogy and students learning needs;
- New textbooks and teacher-guides for grades 1—9 printed and distributed
across the country. New textbooks and teacher-guides for grade 10-12
developed and being printed;
- Forty-two Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and 111-district teacher support
centers established to accommodate 65000 student-teachers (39% female).
- Enrolment in technical and vocational education increased to over 48,000
(16% female) who get educated in 142 TVET schools/ institutes; to respond
to growing needs to technicians and skilled labor
- Over 117,500 students graduated from grade 12 (27% female) in 2010;
- Over 600,000 literacy learners (60% female) are enrolled in nine-month
literacy courses in 2011; a total of 2.7 million received such training since
2002
- Over 10,000 school Shuras established to strengthen community
participation and ownership of education;
- Over 6,000 schools facilities constructed and or rehabilitated through active
community engagement;
- Out of 1,000 schools closed due to insurgencies, 500 were reopened that
provided access to over 200,000 students;
- Administrative reform undertaken to strengthen management, monitoring
and evaluation practices.
- Students in Higher Education increased to 130,000 admitted to 25 public
and 50 private Higher Education institutions.
Key Challenges
Despite many achievements, daunting challenges still lie ahead of the education
sector in the areas of security, access, quality, relevance and management.
I.SECURITY AND ACCESS
Due to security threats, lack of proper learning facilities and shortage of qualified
teachers, especially female, 4.2 million (34%) of the estimated 12.4 million schoolaged children and youth, do not have access to education. 495 schools in 10
provinces remain closed because of insecurity. Around 50% of schools do not
have usable buildings, and in much of the rural areas, children walk long distances
to reach school. One hundred and fifty-eight of 412 urban and rural districts have
no single female students in grade 10 and above; and 228 of these districts have
no single qualified female teacher. Finally, around 10 million adults remain
deprived of literacy training.
II. QUALITY AND RELEVANCE
Only 30% of the over 186,000 teachers, meet the minimum required
qualifications of grade 14. In a great number of schools, limited learning space has
led to extremely short instructional time and overcrowded classrooms, hindering
quality of learning. School textbooks and learning materials are still in short
supply. Technical and vocational education is available to a merely 2% of grade 9
graduates. Similarly, vocational training is available to a tiny portion of adult
population. Because of the lack of required competencies, there is a huge gap
between graduation and employment. Only one-fourth of the 117,500 secondary
school graduates in 2010 got admission to institutions of higher education.
III. MANAGEMENT
Despite efforts to strengthen institutional and personnel capacities, overall
executive capability of the education system from central to district levels, is
inadequate, mainly because of insufficient qualified personnel compounded by
low remuneration. Shortage of proper and adequate infrastructure and
equipment especially information and communication technology adds to the
complexity.
Education Goals for 2020
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In accordance with the Afghanistan Constitution, MDG and EFA goals, the
Ministry of Education is committed to ensuring that by 2020 all school—age boys
and girls will have completed primary education. To achieve this goal, Ministry of
Education aims for the following targets:
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The net enrolment in basic education for girls and boys will be 98%. 14 million students
including 6.5 million girls will be acquiring education in 22,000 schools, taught by
320,000 teachers (50% female);
The number of students in Islamic Education will increase to 470,000, taught by 14,000
teachers in 1,200 schools;
A national Institute of Curriculum Development will be operational. A complete set of
quality textbooks will be provided to students each year;
At least 95% of teachers will have successfully passed the national competency test.
Capacity of TVET will be increased to accommodate at least 12% of basic education
graduates. 23,000 professional teachers in 605 technical and vocational schools will
teach 320,000 students. 200,000 adults will be trained in short term vocational courses
annually;
Higher education institutes will be tailored to produce professionals required for
development priorities, 270,000 students will be acquiring higher education.
The national literacy rate will cross 75%. One million of the illiterate population
including 60% females will be educated, each year, in 40,000 literacy courses by 20,000
teachers every year. The total number of people achieving literacy by year 2020 will
reach 8 million;
100% of schools and universities will have useable buildings and conducive learning
environments;
The education system will be more balanced and gender and regional disparity will be
brought to an absolute minimum using norm-based provincial budget allocation and
tracking;
A functional M&E system will be in place all levels and decisions will be made based on
accurate statistics and research results;
Education content and delivery will be tuned to address national development priorities.
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