Enhancing Education

Overview

USAID’s education program was designed in 2002 to meet the urgent need for school building, textbook printing, teacher training, and accelerated learning for over-aged students who had been denied an education under the Taliban. This program has been expanded to include radio based teacher training, higher education programs and literacy training for workforce development.

Improving Education
Increasing access to quality primary and secondary schools is a key program priority. USAID is improving basic education through programs aimed at strengthening ministry capacity, improving teacher performance and skills development, and ensuring adequate school materials and environments for learning.

• Printed and distributed 35.7 million textbooks for grades 1 – 12 in both Dari and Pashto since 2002. An additional 6.2 million have been printed and are ready for distribution.
• Trained 6,800 teachers and enrolled 170,138 students, of which 58% are girls, in the Accelerated Learning (AL) program which has expanded to cover all 17 provinces.
• Establishing an International School in Kabul to provide modern American-style curriculum to expatriate and Afghan children.
• Launched Radio Teacher Training in 2003 in three pilot provinces, and was expanded to all 17 provinces in 2004. This program currently reaches 65,000 teachers by radio, and 7,479 additional teachers through face-to-face training.
• Funded three technical advisors to the Ministry of Education to improve overall quality and strengthen ministry capacity.

Higher Education
While considerable progress has been made in the past three years, quality of university teaching is generally low, buildings are in poor condition, and furniture and equipment is lacking. USAID facilitates university linkages and provides technical assistance and infrastructure development at targeted institutions aimed at improving access to and quality of university education. Achievements include:

• Establishing the American University of Afghanistan, a private American style university in Kabul
• Rehabilitated the Kabul Women’s Dormitory to accommodate 1,100 mostly rural women who will attend university in Kabul; the first students arrived for the new academic year in March 2005.
• Funded a U.S. university consortium in 2005 which will support Balkh University Faculty of Agriculture (BUFA) in Mazar-e Sharif, in their efforts to modernize curriculum, teaching technologies and techniques.
• Funded three technical advisors to the Ministry of Higher Education to strengthen and develop higher education policy and strategic planning.

Non-Formal Education
Afghanistan has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. In rural areas, where three-fourths of all Afghans live, 90% of the women and 63% of the men are illiterate, and in many villages, 95-100% of the women cannot read or write. While USAID’s accelerated learning program re-integrates out-of-school children into the formal educational system, USAID’s large-scale literacy and occupational skills program takes place outside the formal educational system and focuses on providing literacy and skills training to older girls and women.

• Established the Women’s Teacher Training Institute in Kabul in 2004 as a central resource for government and agencies to access training, materials, and modern pedagogical approaches that support practical and sustainable literacy, numeracy, and life skills.
• Training 8,000 students around the country in functional literacy, economic self-reliance, grassroots democracy and women’s rights through the Literacy and Community Empowerment Program.
• Teaching 5,500 women to read and write, qualifying them for further training as community health workers or midwives.

School Construction
In conjunction with the Ministry of Education, USAID is building schools throughout the Afghan countryside, to provide easier access for greater numbers of students.

To date, USAID has built or refurbished 315 schools, primarily in remote rural areas, since 2002. An additional 184 schools are under construction.

ARZU, Inc.

The Asia Foundation
http://www.asiafoundation.org/Locations/afghanistan.html

CHF International
http://www.chfhq.org/section/worldwide_programs/programs/asia/afghanistan

Christian Children’s Fund
http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/content.aspxid=187

Creative Associates International, Inc.
http://www.caii.net

Education Development Center
http://main.edc.org/search/projectView.aspbcn=0&bcl=Return%20to%20Asia&ProjectID=3485

International Organization for Migration
http://www.iom.int

Management Services for Health

Population Services International
http://www.psi.org/where_we_work/afghanistan.html

Shelter for Life International
http://www.shelter.org/Website_2004/afghanistan.html

United Methodist Committee on Relief
http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor

United Nations Children’s Fund
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan_afghanistan_latest.html

United Nations Development Program
http://www.undp.org.af

United Nations Office for Project Services
http://www.unops.org

University of Nebraska

• Before & After: 5,000 Girls Return to School (pdf - 228k)
• Before & After: Training Teachers in Kabul and Kunduz (pdf - 220k)
• Briefer: Education (pdf - 127k)