Control of the education system has been a mobilizing force for the conservative and radicalized movement that led to overthrow of the Soviet government and the subsequent rise to power of the Taliban. During the reign of the Taliban the educational system was inclined to produce Mujahedeen. Till date Taliban misinterpreted several Quranic verses for justifying killings of thousands of innocents, prohibiting women from acquiring education, labeling co-education illicit and the modern scientific inventions desecrated, the list goes on and on. Nonetheless, seeing at the ill priorities of sitting government, one might dare asking whether the state of affair go on reversing.

A glance at our deserted national priorities disheartens us of interminable irrational and abrupt priorities which happens to be mostly influential than inspirational. The undertakings executed under the influence of forged circumstances than national priorities yield not, the desired result based on national interest.

The misleading objective opinions owned, by incumbent rulers deluded them of genuine issues, instead, and are stuck to unfounded motives in seeking the traces of others involved despite owing hundreds of operational departments under their service. Sticking to state of constant denial, owing the responsibility of mishaps undertaken in one’s realm marks an in-depth degree of incompetence whilst negating any expectancy of betterment.  Consequently the politician overwhelmed in delusion tries not to revisit the gray areas of governance, consequently improvement turned an intangible target given a rational dictum for intellectual and material achievements has never been a pursuable discourse for our politician. Regretfully the efforts are mostly exercised to earn the credit for else good deeds instead of owning and following a clear stance.

Afghanistan’s spending on education is not enough seeing the magnitude of illiteracy. The remedy is to increase the proportion of public resources going into education. If tax-to-GDP ratio cannot be increased, the state should be willing to divert resources from sectors with lower priority towards education. The donor community has been prepared to help with funds when it is not feared that domestic resources were constrained to allow for an increase in public sector expenditure on education. The obvious solution is to invest in teacher training, reforming the curriculum and improving the quality of textbooks that should be deficient of religio-ethnic biases.

It is right for the world and us to worry about the impact of Afghanistan’s dysfunctional educational system especially when it has been demonstrated that poorly educated young men in a country as large as Afghanistan pose a serious security threat to the rest of the world. Millions of families, especially those with little money, send their children to religious schools or Madressahs. Many of these schools are the only opportunity available for an education, but some have been used as nurturing ground for violent extremism. There is no doubt that Madressahs need to be reformed but what is even more critical is the reform of public sector educational systems.