| |
| Education
troubles in Afghanistan |
| By Latika
Padgaonkar, UNESCO New Delhi |
| |
|
 In
the twenty years of war and internal strife in Afghanistan,
education has taken a beating. Different areas of the country
have changed hands frequently between warring parties, and
in these unsettled conditions children have suffered most.
|
| |
| "Education
services have been paralysed," says Dr Anjum ul Haque, Programme
Specialist in UNESCO's Islamabad Office. "Data collection is
near impossible in the absence of a universally recognized and
acceptable national government." |
| |
| Presenting
a paper on the education scene in Afghanistan at a meeting convened
recently by UNESCO in Kathmandu to assess the progress made
by countries towards Education for All, Dr Haque stated that
difficulties with data collection in Afghanistan were compounded
by a large floating population and the absence of a census.
|
| |
| However,
some data were collected for UNESCO's assessment exercise under
an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in which UNESCO collaborated with the United Nations Children's
Fund, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan and Save the Children (USA). It shows
that the number of schools has halved in the last twenty years.
In 1990 all provinces had schools; in 1995, nine provinces had
none at all. In 1990, the United Nations and other agencies
supported 600 schools; today they support only 200. |
| |
| Few
schools for girls |
| |
|
Girls'
education has been severely comprised. In 1978, at the time
of the Soviet invasion, all provinces had girls' schools.
In 1990 however, only one out of every five schools was for
girls, and the provinces of Ghor, Helmand, Oruzgan and Zabul
had no girls' school at all; three years later, this ratio
dropped to 13.2 per cent. Today, only 18.5 per cent of enrolled
children are girls, even in schools led by international agencies.
The Taliban edict on girls' education has led to a whopping
65 per cent drop in their enrolment.
In schools run by the Directorate of Education, only 1 per
cent of the pupils are girls.
|
| |
| The
percentage of female teachers, too, has slid from 59.2 per cent
in 1990 to 13.5 per cent in 1999. Of these, 96 per cent work
in schools run by agencies. |
| |
| "Education
services continue to be provided by the local administration
on a sporadic basis," said Dr Haque. "A large number of teachers,
particularly female, continue to draw salaries without going
to school." |
| |
| According
to the Afghanistan report, the preoccupation of the local authorities
with war "has resulted in a reduced concern for the education
of children." Whereas the country had 3,459 primary schools
in 1978, there were only 589 in 1990. This does not include
the 200 schools run by agencies, but even this support is on
the decline. |
| |
| Such
rudimentary information notwithstanding, it is clear that political
uncertainty, the lack of national data and large-scale migration
prevent a clear picture from emerging. Dr Haque is emphatic
that "the above gives an indication of general rather than absolute
trends." |
| |
| |
 |
A women teacher leads a class of five boys, seated on
makeshift furniture in a war-damaged classroom in Kabul,
the capital of Afghanistan.
|
|
©
UNICEF/95-0226/Jeremy
Hartley
(This
photo may not be reproduced )
|
|
| |
