Afghans Demand More of Education System

Hundreds of residents of Nangarhar, Khost and Kandahar provinces had a chance to put tough questions to experts and officials in a series of IWPR-organised debates about the effects of conflict on education in Afghanistan.

At a debate held at a girls' school in the Araban neighbourhood of Jalalabad, the administrative centre of the eastern Nangarhar province, participants emphasised that girls had been particularly disadvantaged.

A civil society activist, Ustad Zia Gul, said large parts of Nangarhar’s population had been effectively deprived of an education. Schools had been burned down, students killed and injured, and families forced to prevent female members attending classes due to threats from armed groups.

“Now we don’t even feel safe in the towns. Every morning, when our sisters leave home for school, they ask their mothers to pray that they will return home safely,” Zia Gul said.

Mohammad Asef Shinwari, spokesman for the province’s education department, said that data collected by his office showed that 150,000 children aged between seven and ten had missed out on education because of conflict. He acknowledged that girls faced particular difficulties.

“Despite all the problems, we have tried to keep the doors of schools open and we have managed to do so thus so far,” he added.

Religious scholar Maulavi Abdullah told participants that anyone who prevented children from being educated would be damned for all eternity.

“The Koran and the hadiths [Prophet Muhammad’s deeds and sayings] clearly state that education is an obligation for men and women equally,” he said.

Female school pupils put questions to the panel during the debate. Among them was Karima, in grade 11, who asked what NGO activists had achieved and how easily they could operate.

“We are active in all the districts as well as in the provincial centre,” Zia Gul replied. “We tell people about the value of education and we convey problems to the officials responsible.”

In Khost province, west of Nangarhar, speakers also complained about the damage that some 35 years of war had done to the education system.

Matiullah Fazli, deputy director of Khost’s education department, noted that while none of the province’s schools had been forced to close, many lacked proper resources including textbooks and qualified teachers.

“There are currently more than 300,000 boys and 100,000 girls studying at the 415 primary, secondary and high schools in Khost, but 50 per cent of them have no school buildings,” he said.

Debate participants Akhtar Sahel and Mujiburrahman said things were even worse than Fazli described. For instance, while the school in Makhshi village in Gorboz district had a building and teachers, classes only took place once a month. Most local teachers had been appointed based on nepotism and had very little academic training,  and this too had  harmed standards.

Fazli said that he was unaware of the particular problem in Makhshi, but promised to investigate and find a solution.

“All these issues are created by the current violence,” he added. “We cannot visit some remote areas because of these concerns, because conditions there are poor.”

Religious scholar Mohammad Yunus also criticised the standard of education in Khost.

“The quality of learning is very low,” he said. “Graduates from grade 12 are unable to spell. How can they contribute to society?”

Fazli replied that this too was a result of constant conflict, and said when security was guaranteed, then the quality of education would improve.

Government officials speaking at a third debate in the Spin Boldak district of the southern Kandahar province also defended the standard of education on offer.

District government chief Ali Khan said war had taken its toll on every part of the country, and Spin Boldak was no exception. However, improved security was now making it possible to invest in education.

“We have opened most of the closed schools this year, for the second time, in cooperation with the education department and local people. Students now go to school with confidence,” he said. “We will make further efforts to provide security in dangerous areas of the district and to reopen schools that are closed, provided that local residents cooperate with us.”

Tribal elder Hajji Abdul Razaq argued that local people must shoulder some of the blame for the problems.

“If people valued education, they would not have allowed anyone to close their children’s schools,” he said.

Juma Khan, chairman of the district’s community council, disputed this, insisting that residents were keen to see improvements. He said that although he was talking to concerned citizens on how to improve their schools, it was not easy to fix the legacy of prolonged lengthy conflict.

“We try to encourage people, through gatherings and meetings, to take up the pen instead of arms, and to help rebuild their ruined education system,” he said.

This report is based on an ongoing series of debates conducted as part of the IWPR programme Afghan Reconciliation: Promoting Peace and Building Trust by Engaging Civil Society.