The Afghan refugees who took refuge in Pakistan in the 1980s originated chiefly from the rural areas of Eastern Afghanistan. They were mainly Pushtun, and besides adherence to Islam they were bound by Pushtunwali, a tribal code which emphasised protection of women and concern for their honour. Formal or secular education had not penetrated to the rural masses, and not to girls. Some 3 million refugees were present at the end of the 1980s, but repatriation during the 1990s has left an estimated 1.2 million refugees still in Pakistan.

During the 1980s the refugees’ suspicion of formal education abated gradually and the attendance at refugee schools funded by UNHCR and managed by the provincial governments grew. However, the enrolment of girls remained at less than one-tenth that of boys, and the girls were mostly very young. This situation has changed in recent years, and the present case study summarises some elements contributing to these changes. As of early 1998, girls accounted for 18.5% of all school pupils in North West Frontier Province and 24% of school pupils in Baluchistan, or 20% and 29% respectively if non-formal schooling is included.

The UNHCR-funded school programmes for Afghan refugees were initially managed by the provincial governments. In 1996 management was transferred to GTZ (German Agency for Technical Cooperation) in North West Frontier Province and Save the Children Federation (SCF) in Baluchistan. These agencies already had extensive involvement in education programmes for the refugees, including non-formal education. International Rescue Committee and Ockenden Venture also operate refugee schools in parts of NWFP.

UNHCR Islamabad recently prepared the following time series, illustrating the dramatic increase in female enrolments in basic education:

A recent community-based survey in refugee camps in Baluchistan, using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques, found the following major barriers to female participation in education:

• lack of opportunities for girls to learn in conditions that are culturally appropriate
• male attitudes towards appropriate female behaviour
• restrictions of female mobility
• a common perception that education is less relevant for girls
• a shortage of women educated enough to be teachers
• poor quality of the education (then) available (1).

In the case of boys, the restrictions on participation are chiefly those of poverty. This means that the poorest boys may miss schooling because of lack of adequate clothing and lack of family support for education. Boys from poor families who are old enough to earn income through petty trade, scavenging and so on have to leave school to contribute to the income of the household.

A wide range of measures have been taken during the 1980s (with limited success) and 1990s to promote Afghan girls’ education. Some of these measures are outlined below.

Some refugee villages are in isolated locations and many do not have a girls school as such. Actions taken by education projects to improve access have included establishment of girls’ classes in boys’ schools (see below) and the use of ‘home schools’ (see below). Self-help schools, mainly for girls, have been set up under community animation programmes (see below).

Community support for school attendance

Both the GTZ and SCF projects introduced a community awareness element on taking over the schools, with project staff assigned responsibility for establishment of School Management Committees, guiding their work, and encouraging female participation. SCF activities include "promotion of the value of education for girls by SCF education staff through regular meetings with elders, religious leaders, in women’s non-formal education classes etc" (1).

Likewise "GTZ has established a fully functional Community Development Unit that has designed and implemented various community-based programmes e.g. Parents’ Day celebrations in the schools (and)..establishment of School Management Committees" (2).

The Social Welfare Cell of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees has motivated communities without school facilities to establish self-help schools at lower primary level. As of mid-1999, there were 73 such schools, almost all catering to the education of girls.

Food incentive for girls.

A major factor underlying increased female enrolments was the introduction of a monthly distribution of a tin of edible oil for girls who have attended school for 20 days of the month. This applies to girls who have completed one year of schooling (and does not apply to self-help schools). The World Food Programme provided this edible oil following discontinuation of food rations in late 1995. The oil provides some help to the poorer families, and is targeted to these families through female participation in the education process. (Female teachers also receive a tin of oil, if they attend school regularly.)

This incentive does not in effect force families to send their daughters to school, since its value is not great. However, it provides a counterbalance to sentiments such as " girls are better off to stay home and learn housework " or " education is of little use to girls ".

One problem with food incentives, noted in other situations, is that discontinuation can disrupt schooling. However, in the case of these very conservative populations there was previously very little female schooling to disrupt, so there was ‘little to lose’ by this strategy. Recent reports indicate that gaps in the distribution process did not affect enrolment.

There was some discussion as to whether boys would feel discriminated against. This was felt not to be the case, since the culture places such high prestige on boys. Moreover, the incentive clearly benefits the whole family rather than the girl, and lacks any immediate attractiveness to a child.

School materials.

Another key incentive, free school materials and loan of school textbooks, is provided equally to boys and girls.

Separate facilities for girls.

The current implementing agencies inherited a number of girls’schools, but in many locations only boys’schools had been constructed. To meet the growing demand for female education, but with separate facilities, SCF adopted the following policy:

"Where possible, girls (without access to girls’ schools) are encouraged to attend mixed primary schools. If this is not possible, single sex schools are recommended as an alternative. If this is not allowed, home-based single sex schools are initiated... Additional strategies in 1997 (included) :

• the introduction of classes for girls in boys’ schools, making them ‘mixed schools’
• holding girls’ schools in the same building as the boys’ in the afternoon
• home schools for girls (girls in a neighbourhood forming a one-class school in a home with a sufficient space for this purpose) (1).

Recruitment and training of female teachers.

The lack of competent female teachers had been a major problem in Baluchistan, where the camps were too far from towns for Pakistani women teachers to travel and where teachers "from the city" were not previously welcome. SCF notes that:

"One new development is the availability of qualified female teachers (new refugees) from Kabul. These women are prepared to live in the camps, and communities are now prepared to accept them. They have been introduced to teach in the girls’ schools which had been closed because of quality concerns" (see below) (1).

The use of elderly male teachers (from within the community) to teach girls has also been accepted in recent years.

Teachers in the home schools for girls can include facilitators already trained for the women’s literacy courses. "These facilitators will be guided by the Kabuli teachers where available and will receive intensive support from SCF education staff" (1).

Improving the quality of schooling.

The quality of schooling had long been a major problem in Baluchistan, and finally assessment tests were administered to pupils and later to teachers. Teachers who lacked competence in the basics of the early primary school curriculum were asked to leave. To further improve quality, SCF introduced the curriculum and workbooks developed by GTZ in the North West Frontier Province, with training of staff and teachers by GTZ trainers. SCF then supported the introduction of this curriculum in all the refugee schools. "Children and teachers are very happy with the new curriculum" (1).

In North West Frontier Province, GTZ has worked for a number of years on the development of educational materials, and intensive training of teachers through vacation courses, in-school guidance by master trainers, etc, and the standard of schooling is good.

A study of the resourcing requirements of the self help schools is to be undertaken jointly with UNICEF.

"The certification of the primary level for Afghan refugee schools is not officially recognised. All primary school graduates can get admission in the Middle level schools of the Pakistan Government "(2). This is problematic for refugee boys living in camps distant from national Middle schools. At present some refugee middle and secondary schools, previously funded by UNHCR, are being operated by the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees using funds from the sale of surplus assets.

For Afghan refugee girls living in rural areas, the whole question of access to post-primary education is problematic, since there it is difficult for them to attend schools not near to their place of residence. This will become an increasingly serious problem as more girls complete primary school.

GTZ non-formal basic education programme.

GTZ has developed literacy materials that, since 1993, have been used to train almost 48,000 adult students, 33% of them women.

"In addition to the adult literacy classes, the project has also initiated classes for out-of-school children in the form of ‘afternoon classes’ for boys and ‘home schools’ for girls (This was) for boys and girls who ‘dropped out’ or were too young to be admitted in the adult literacy course and too old to start in the primary schools. Specific curricula are designed for out-of-school children in order to have a link with formal education, so that the graduates of these courses are able to continue with their education"(2).

SCF non-formal basic education programmes, Baluchistan.

SCF has introduced home schools for girls, as indicated above. These schools follow the normal school curriculum, though using girls or women from the community as teachers, assisted by project staff.

SCF pioneered life-centred interactive ‘health and literacy’ courses for Afghan refugee women and older girls in Baluchistan camps. The methodology is centred around large group and small group discussions of family and health topics, built around discussions cards (laminated small cards, showing pictures drawn by a refugee woman artist). Smaller laminated cards showing letters are also used, for writing words in groups. The classes are held in a refugee home for about 90 minutes, three times a week, at a time of the participants’ choosing. The facilitators are girls and women with basic education, drawn from the local community, who receive training and ongoing support from the project staff (3).

SCF also introduced female health and literacy classes in Haripur District of North West Frontier Province. Refugees there were very conservative, and it was necessary to develop a different type of materials. "The intention was to use the materials that SCF has developed for its women’s classes in Baluchistan and Mazar-i-Sharif... these materials were too sensitive to begin with. Instead, the trainers began classes with discussions on topics which women requested. The trainers developed a pamphlet with ten introductory lessons. The pamphlet was also distributed to the mullahs and other refugee men....the SCF materials have since been introduced without problem. The trainers are developing additional materials in response to the demand of the participants, and an introductory pamphlet about history and geography of Afghanistan is being developed "(2).

It seems that the continuing efforts to promote female education among the Afghan refugee population which arrived in Pakistan in the 1980s have at long last borne fruit. Part of the change has been due to broader factors, including the familiarisation of the refugees with the less restricted situation of girls and women in Pakistan and (for migrant workers) other Muslim countries. Many of today’s parents were borne or educated in refugee villages in Pakistan. Possibly there is now an element of status in one’s daughters or daughter-in-law’s being literate.

It is impossible to disentangle the various factors, but there can be no doubt that the introduction of the edible oil incentive in 1996 gave a big push to Afghan girls’ education in Pakistan. More recently, however, the Social Welfare Cell outreach workers, assisted by Afghan refugee social animators, have been able to motivate the establishment of self help schools even without material incentives.

The periodic arrival of educated Afghan women from Kabul, where girls’ education was normal and many women had been trained as teachers, has also contributed to the ongoing development of girls’ education.

The development of non-formal approaches to female education has also reinforced the trend: