Afghan Education; Challenges and Solutions

Part (1): Internal Challenges

Afghanistan is among the countries with the lowest literacy level, where it experiences major problems in various aspects, including education, which has had a significant negative impact on the development of the country. Despite significant progress in the educational area, its quality remains a main challenge. Schools do not have the required facilities, equipment, and quality. However, any positive change based on science can certainly be hopeful. If we imagine only one hope in the poisoned atmosphere of the country today, it is that the children of this land today are making exponential efforts to step forward in learning and making a bright future for the country.

Even though relative progress in recent years, Afghan education is still facing major challenges, which according to the Ministry of Education, it is estimated that the country’s educated population does not exceed 42%. Thus, ten million Afghan citizens are illiterate, where the majority of these people are women, especially who live rural areas. This week’s analysis focuses on the internal challenges of Afghan education.

Dimensions of Internal Challenges to the education

There are many challenges facing the country’s education that are highlighted here. Though promises have been made by the authorities to address these challenges, and even in some cases, measures have been taken, however, the Ministry of Education has a long way forward until it fully resolves existing political and economic challenges.

Weakness in Basics

Every now and then, the lag behind in education is because students in the elementary class are not properly laid the foundation for their education. While they did not understand letters, wording and numbers correctly, they were considered qualified to upgrade to a higher class. Unfortunately, in Afghanistan education, most of the teachers who do not have sufficient experience are required to attend elementary classes. Elementary classes are, indeed, the basics for students.

Besides that, other reasons that may weaken basics of the students can include: learning disabilities that the teacher does not notice them due to student congestion, lack of confidence, or hatred for a teacher for whatever reason has arisen. Repeated absence of students from school, dense curriculum that causes pupils to misunderstand the lesson, and inappropriate environments that disrupt the lesson and reluctance of elementary students results in students to encounter problems in coming lessons and, thus, not to have interest in the studies.

Weakness in Teaching Method

In every country, education is one of the most important social systems. Education creates the desired changes in cognition, attitudes and ultimately the behavior of children, adolescents and young people. Provided, of course, that appropriate practices are used in the field of education and that the students receive good teaching materials in a good way. Despite the progress of the international community in terms of teaching and learning of technology, our country is still using traditional and old methods. For example, math students all write from the right but read from the left. When they reach the upper levels they realize that math has to be written from the left. According to the current norm of education, there is one teacher for every 45 students, female students are less allowed to study, due to the lack of female teachers, the number of students is increasing year by year, and currently about 60 students in every class Are taught that reaching out to so many students is beyond the reach of the teacher. And another reason that we can say that there is a shortage of time, our school curriculum is 35 minutes, during which time the teacher has to evaluate and repeat the previous lesson, follow up with the class, explain the new lesson and revise the problems of the students regarding the new lesson.

Lack of Standard Curriculum

Lack of standard textbooks leads to a decrease in the efficiency of nurturing education and the quality of the teaching courses. The textbooks of our country appear very complex. Students who are unfamiliar with the alphabet, while the elementary first grade textbooks are only reminded of it once, no matter if the students have learned the alphabet, the sentences appear. Students who have problems in the family due to problems have not been able to get education before going to school, teachers lack time and, according to their plans, cannot rotate too much, the student is confronted with large paragraphs, which confuses students’ minds and ultimately causing them to skip lessons. Or that there are themes whose learning is not necessary for schoolchildren, such as elective, patriotic, and vocational … while the themes that matter like Arabic appear without introductions in class 7 and end in class 9 again without reaching the goal. The lack of curriculum causes the content to be increased but the quality of assimilation in students is reduced.

Problems of Educational System

The education system in the world is partial when students get to read, write and get an overview of all the topics they can then pursue in terms of their interest and talent in helping them reach their desired field and passing the specialized subjects and to help them become prepared for the Kankor (University Entrance Examination). But in our country, students have to pursue the themes of all disciplines without regard to their talents, and to excel in all of them in order to achieve a high degree. Next to it are some unfinished themes, such as the Arabic that goes into class 7 and then ends up in class 9.

Low Capacity of Teachers

The majority of professional teachers have left the country or are engaged in other professions due to the low salaries and lack of attention to the basic needs of teachers. Or that they have forgotten it because of the long detachment from the teaching profession and that some have just come to terms with the existing corruption and nepotism and are engaged with the sacred profession of teaching. There may be times when a student knows the teacher better and the teacher does not understand the new method. The teaching method is one of the important issues because what the student aims at early on is the same as the one taught by the master. Most teachers are not particularly professional in remote areas and have not been given the opportunity to continue their education. Seminars are mostly poor quality and teachers have poor abilities and this makes teachers less interested and chasing seminars. In the current situation of the country, most of the goods have increased in price several times. One of the best classes in the teachers’ community are the disorganized. How can a teacher whose life is not financially stable be able to educated our children properly?

Lack of Parents’ Cooperation

Some parents have children who are at an average or lower level of mental performance when it comes to education, and with the cooperation, effort and determination of a very small extent, they can reach to the level of other students; hence, one of the reasons for low quality of education in our country is illiteracy of parents. As a matter of fact, children who are not familiar with elementary education cannot go along with their parents from the course of education, lessons and supervision of the students, which leads to lower quality of education.

Economic Problems

Majority of school students are both working and studying due to their low levels of economy, where they do not have focus later then. Both the teachers and the students who go into the class with a restless mind, it is, then, natural that they cannot handle their tasks well.

Overall, the challenges include: academic weakness of teachers, lack of communication between parents and school, lack of writing equipment, lack of motivation, lack of familiarity with learning methods, lack of drinking water, lack of content, lack of students’ interest in learning and teachers’ interest in teaching, considering one student’s talent and ignoring others, having a view of racial discrimination against students, lack of discipline, and lack of a punishment and award system for student and teachers and etcetera. The various deficiencies in the education of the country have made the educational system encounter hindrances and its development process to be not taken seriously.