Afghan Education and the Contention between the Government and the Taliban
Education is one of the most fundamental and vital part of human life and plays a prime role in the development of the human society. In the past one and half decade, the Afghan education has certainly had remarkable progress, however; still, there exist many problems and challenges in its way, the most important of which are: insecurity, low quality, corruption and other challenges.
Another challenging factor is the simultaneous reign of both the Taliban and the Afghan government on schools and educational administrations in areas controlled by the Taliban. Center for Strategic and Regional Studies (CSRS) have information in hand that suggests that due to restrictions imposed on the system of getting salaries through banking system on behalf of the Taliban, in some of the insecure province of the country, teachers and other school staff have not received their salaries in the past six months and thus a significant number of schools are about to be closed.
Here, you would read about the educational situation in Afghanistan in the post-2001 years, during the National Unity Government (NUG), and in the regions under the Taliban control and as well as the new challenges faced by the education staff in a number of insecure provinces in the country.
Education in Afghanistan in the post-2001 years
After the collapse of the Taliban regime following the US attack on Afghanistan in 2001 and with the formation of the new government in Afghanistan, education was one of the sectors which have had remarkable developments.
In 1380 [solar year, all the following dates are solar year], 3389 schools were open in Afghanistan. However, this number increased to 6000 in the next year. In 1384, 1394 and 1395, there were respectively 8397[1], 15645[2] and 16049 schools in the country[3]. The number of students in Afghan schools in 1395 was 8868122 which means four million students are added to the 4.9 million students in 1386.
In the past years, thousands of school buildings were constructed where hundreds of thousands of students is receiving education. However, this trend was affected by the increasing insecurity in the country. Besides insecurity, widespread corruption is another factor that has lowered the school quality in the country. In the past years, the quantity has been stressed upon in the Afghan schools, while quality has been neglected, which in turn has been challenging. Based on a survey, conducted by CSRS in the main cities of the country, 62.59% of the interviewees had said that education had a bad quality in the past one and a half decade[4].
The NUG and the Afghan education
After the establishment of the NUG, in his first days in office, President Ghani said that the educational situation back then was not acceptable for him. He vowed to work to augment the quality of education, de-politicize the educational sector, improve the situation of teachers, and bolster women’s participation in the strategic aspects of education in the county. After one and a half year, however, he apologized for failing to deliver his promises and, renewing his pledges, committed to fulfilling them[5].
However, after 1395 and with the beginning of 1396, another year passed, and besides former challenges, the Afghan education sector faced new challenges such as insecurity, corruption, lack of equipment, lack of professional teachers, etc.
Moreover, hundreds of schools were closed in many regions in the country. Recently, the Independent Human Rights Commission has also announced that since the past eight months, only 7 out of 318 schools in the center and districts of Uruzgan province were open and the remaining 311 are closed for security reasons[6]. According to officials in the Afghan Ministry of Education, one thousand other schools are closed in Ghazni, Kunduz, Zabel, Paktia, Helmand, Nimroz, Farah, Badghis, and Nangarhar provinces[7].
In the meanwhile, the open schools are facing serious challenges as well, which are; lack of professional teachers, teaching materials, school building and the existence of corruption. In many cases, there have been reports of religious scholars teaching scientific subjects as well as students being deprived of teaching tools such as books, notebooks, laboratories, etc.
In the commencing ceremony of 1396 educational year, the Second Vice President Sarwar Danesh said that despite the infusion of billions of dollars in Afghanistan, yet 50% of Afghanistan’s schools did not have standard buildings which, he says, was a shame for Afghanistan. [8]
The situation of education in the Taliban-controlled areas
Based on SIGAR’s most recent report, the Afghan government has control only on 65.6% of its territory, and the remaining areas are under Taliban control. Although the Taliban have closed girls’ schools, boys’ schools are open but under the supervision of the Taliban.
Several years ago, officials in Kapisa province had said that in insecure districts of this province a commission is formed by the Taliban to monitor schools and that the Taliban seriously observe the progress of education. As part of their supervision, the Taliban have also brought some changes in the curriculum, and in order to keep these schools open, authorities have accepted it. At that time even some teachers were happy from this initiative on behalf of the Taliban, but after some time, the problem revealed itself and the simultaneous management of schools by the Afghan government and the Taliban in insecure provinces of the country proved to be challenging.
CSRS has some information in its possession that suggests the Taliban monitors and manages schools in areas under its control in some of the provinces (including Maidan Warda, Ghazni, Kunduz, Kapisa, Nangarhar, Kuna, etc.). In some cases, Taliban’s monitoring, management, and decisions were against those of the Afghan government, which means more schools are at the risk of getting closed.
One of these problems is the issue delivering teachers’ salaries through banks. Since last year, the Afghan government has changed the salary delivery system for teachers and delivers it through banks. Before this, the salaries were delivered by a certified individual from every school. Although banking mechanism is an effective effort to prevent corruption, it creates challenges as well. There are no branches of banks in districts, and every teachers spend a portion of their salaries to travel to the centers of the provinces.
The banking mechanism of salary delivery, however, has also caused serious problems for instance in some Taliban-controlled areas, the Taliban have prevented teachers from taking their salaries through banks and, therefore, since the past six months, these teachers have not received their salaries. While most of the schools are at risk of getting closed and tribal elders from the area have come to government organs to solve the problem, in this regard, the government has undertaken no measures. Based on the information in hand, these teachers have decided to close the schools and do something else for a living, if the problem was not resolved soon.
According to the information that CSRS has received, the Taliban regularly monitor the teaching process, teachers’ presence and curriculum in areas under its control. According to the teachers in these regions, the salary of every teacher who is absent is deducted by the Taliban’s monitoring representatives. Regarding curriculum, for instance, the Taliban have removed a subject called “Farhang (culture)” from the curriculum. This subject was taught in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades. Besides other issues, Farhang included topics such as music, instruments, musicians and atan [an Afghan traditional dance]. The Taliban has supplanted the subject with another subject called ‘Islamic Educations’ and have appointed teachers for it as well.
The end
[1] «افغانستان په تېره یوهنیمه لسیزه کې»، گزارش تحقیقی و تحلیلی مرکز مطالعات استراتیژیک و منطقوی در مورد وضعیت یکونیم دهۀ گذشته، صفحه: ۳۴۰، سال چاپ: 1395 هـ ش.
[2] سالنامۀ احصائیوی ۱۳۹۴ هـ ش، نشر شده توسط ادارۀ مرکزی احصائیه.
[3] سالنامۀ احصائیوی ۱۳۹۵ هـ ش، نشر شده توسط ادارۀ مرکزی احصائیه.
[4] «افغانستان په تېره یوهنیمه لسیزه کې»، گزارش تحقیقی و تحلیلی مرکز مطالعات استراتیژیک و منطقوی در مورد وضعیت یکونیم دهۀ گذشته، صفحه: ۳۶۱، سال چاپ: 1395 هـ ش.
[5] بی بی سی فارسی، «شروع مکاتب در افغانستان؛ غنی برای ‘وعدههای عملی نشده’ پوزش خواست» ۲۲ مارچ ۲۰۱۶م، لینک گزارش:
http://www.bbc.com/persian/afghanistan/2016/03/160322_k04_first_school_day_president_admits_failure
[6]رادیو آزادی، «حقوقبشر: ولایت ارزگان تنها ۷ مکتب فعال دارد» ۱۱ ثور ۱۳۹۶ هـ ش، لینک نشر:
https://da.azadiradio.com/a/28461823.html
[7]رادیو آزادی، «بیش از ۱۰۰۰مکتب در اثر نا امنیها در افغانستان مسدود شدند»، ۶ عقرب ۱۳۹۵ هـ ش، آنلاین:
https://da.azadiradio.com/a/28078204.html
[8] خبرگزاری آوا، «زنگ آغاز سال تعلیمی ۹۶ توسط معاون رییس جمهور نواخته شد»، ۳ حمل ۱۳۹۶ هـ ش، به لینک ذیل مراجعه نمایید: