Education

Two separate systems of education exist in Afghanistan. The older system is a religious one, taught by the mullahs, who conduct schools in the village mosques. They teach the religious precepts of the Koran, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The other system was introduced in Afghanistan's 1964 constitution and provided for free and compulsory education at all levels. Prior to the civil war the respected Kabul University (founded in 1932) was a major seat of learning with free tuition. Nine other colleges were established within it from 1938 through 1967, each with assistance from such countries as France, Germany, the United States, Egypt, and the USSR. Before 1961 only men could receive a higher education; that year all faculties were made coeducational. University of Nangarhar (1962) in Jalalabad was established to teach medicine and other disciplines.

Before the 1978 military coup, the public school system was based on Western models. Special emphasis was placed on primary education. Secondary schools existed in Kabul and the larger towns. Twelve years of primary and secondary schooling were expected, although many Afghans could not attend because they lived in areas where there were no schools.

In the mid-1980s the country had about 800 primary schools and 300 general secondary schools. Kabul University had about 6500 students. Literacy was estimated to be about 29 percent for all Afghans aged 15 and older in 1990, about 44 percent for males and about 14 percent for females. However, some experts believe these figures are too high, since up to 80 percent of the schools had been destroyed by this time; warfare effectively eliminated most education thereafter and a generation grew up without any formal schooling. To better meet educational needs the United States government and the University of Nebraska at Omaha helped design a mobile school system with teaching materials that were printed on fabric and carried all over Afghanistan to teach basic skills. The current civil war has caused the closing or dismantling of most lower, middle, and higher education facilities. After the 1978 coup, 36 faculty members from Kabul University were executed and 260 fled the country.

World Bank Provides Further Grant Support to Afghanistan's Education Sector‏

WASHINGTON, January 31, 2008 ─ The World Bank today approved two grants totaling US$50 million to increase equitable access to quality basic education, especially for girls, and provide vocational education and training opportunities.

The Second Education Quality Improvement Program (US$30 million) is an expansion of the World Bank's ongoing Education Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP), which provide teacher training and grants directly to communities. These funds are used for the rehabilitation of school buildings and for accessing quality inputs such as teaching and learning materials through Provincial Education Departments.

Since inception in 2004, the program supported the establishment of some 2,480 Schools Management Committees. These committees, which consist of parents and community representatives, have used block grants to rehabilitate over 500 schools building in ten provinces. In Addition, these committees, with technical support from relevant education departments, have implemented quality improvement activities such as teacher training additional teacher support supervision, educational materials and supplies, supplementary readers’ toolkits, workshops and seminars.

“Beyond the major achievement of enrolling almost six million children in school, the challenges in education sector remain daunting,” said Scherzad J. Monami Latif, World Bank Senior Education Specialist and Project Team Leader. “An estimated 11 Millions Afghans are illiterate and nearly half the school age population remains out of school with significant gender and provincial disparities. A massive skill deficit cuts across all institutions in Afghanistan, form principals to teachers, and from managers to skilled labor force. These projects will help reduce this skills deficit and support the Government’s goal of having at least 60 percent of girls and 75 percent of boys enrolled in primary schools by end 2010.

The Afghanistan Skills Development Project (US$20 Million) is designed to increase the number of skilled Afghans and create a high-quality technical vocational education and training system that is equitable, market responsive, and cost-effective. More specifically, the project will develop a demand-driven vocational education and training system, and give training institutions autonomy to plan and customize their programs and establish partnerships with experienced national and international training providers.

“The project aims to transform existing education institutions to correspond to the skills that individuals, business, and government in Afghanistan need,” said Venkatesh Sundararaman, World Bank Economist and Project Team Leader. “By focusing a major component of the project on market linkages with a rural focus, the project will help build economic linkages in rural areas, and support the most vulnerable groups? the most difficult issues in Afghanistan to address.

”The overall project cost of Second Education Quality Improvement Program is estimated to the US$187 million of which US$30 million grant assistance is provided by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm and the remaining funds will be provided by bilateral donors through Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).

The overall project cost of Afghanistan Skills Development Project is estimated to be US$35 million of which US$20 million grant assistance is provided by IDA and the remaining funds will be provided by bilateral donors including United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Government of Norway.