ANSF Soldiers hit the books and promote literacy

Story by Mass Communications Specialist 2^nd Class Cory Rose
NATO Training Mission  - Afghanistan, Public Affairs Office
 
Ministry of Defense (MoD) hosted a function to celebrate the literacy achievements of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP) Sep.  5.

  Since the start of the literacy program in Nov. 2009 through Aug.  1, 2012, nearly 161,000 have achieved Level 1 (basic alphabet, short words, one’s name, and counting to 1,000), 60,000 have achieved Level 2 (reading and writing in sentences), and 38,557 have achieved Level 3 (paragraph writing and comprehension).

“When many of these soldiers joined the Army they weren’t able to read or write their names, but today is a new day,” said Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, Afghan National Army chief of Army staff.

Afghanistan has dealt with more than 30 years of insecurity, occupation, and the loss of an education infrastructure in terms of literacy which resulted in more than 11 million Afghans ages 15 or older who are unable to read or write.

“A former colleague gave me a saying, ‘Sawad Zen Dagi Ast’…’Literacy is Life’.  I’d like to take it one step further and say literacy is the LIFEBLOOD of opportunity,” said U.S.  Air Force Maj. Carol Marrujo, chief, literacy operations for NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. “It is our belief that Afghanistan will one day in the near future have a fully literate security force.”

With the start of a literacy program within the ANA and the ANP, a significant number of Afghans have been afforded the ability to read and write and eager to learn.

“They’re able to write letters to their families,” said Karimi. “I always see them with books and they’re always so excited to attend classes.”

Literacy and numeracy for the country of Afghanistan and especially the ANSF are critical for the development of a credible, professional, and self-sustainable force. The members of the force are required to be able to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute, and use printed and written materials for their profession.

NTM-A is a coalition of 38 troop contributing nations charged with assisting the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in generating a capable and sustainable Afghan National Security Force ready to take lead of their country’s security by 2014. For more information about NTM-A, visit www.ntm-a.com.

Tags: afghan national army, Afghan National Police, Afghan National Security Force, afghanistan, ANA, ANP, ansf, education, Feature, featured, literacy, Ministry of Defense, MoD, nato, nato training mission, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, NTM-A, soldier, training

Category: Literacy, News - News