EDUCATION

Free and compulsory education was established in Afghanistan’s l964 constitution, but the war and turmoil that accelerated in the l980’s destroyed that hope.  Two generations have now grown up with little formal public schooling. 

The opportunity for girls to go to school in Afghanistan has always been less than for boys, but under the repressive years of Taliban control it was nearly impossible.  Brave women maintained secret underground schools here and there, teaching girls in spite of the danger.  Even today, girls are educated separately, and women teachers are almost always required.  In rural provinces, education for boys as well as girls remains scarce.  In the country as a whole, only about half of boys of eligible age are in school, and less than a third of eligible girls are enrolled.

The Ministry of Education struggles to fiud qualified teachers and build schools.   Everyone agrees that the goal is to create a functional public school system, but in the meantime, private efforts are critical.  There are many inspiring examples of villagers connecting with private organizations to help them open schools.

I visited four wonderful projects (click the images below to view galleries of these projects):  

Bostan School, Save the Children	Farza School, Save the Children
Pre-school, Paghman	AIL Kindergarden, Kabul