Education is a versatile tool guaranteeing stability, social cohesion and societal uplift whilst ensuring respect for human rights. Many societal problems get regulated after education stands top most priority. The skinny budget allocated for education ridicules us as a nation and marks deep-rooted state of intellectual bankruptcy. Unless education renders preliminary requisite, success may remain a day dream.
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 Taliban the educational system was inclined to produce Mujahedeen. Till date Taliban misinterpret several Quranic verses to justify killings of thousands of innocents, prohibit women of acquiring education, label co-education illicit and the modern scientific inventions desecrated – the list goes on and on.
Formerly, Taliban reiterated their support to education in Afghanistan given in a proper environment in line with Islamic instructions. “Parents should not to enroll their children to schools funded by Christians,” Taliban warned. None is defiant of the fact that Taliban talk of education but keep on promoting violence, bloodshed, butchery and mass killing of innocents on biased religious grounds.
Aiming to put Afghanistan on the course of endemic upheaval and turmoil, Taliban’s advice will stand sufficient. It is evident that education can function as a root cause and feeder of conflict, with the potential to retrench ethnic/religious divides and other societal cleavages. This dual nature of education reflects both the positive, or peace building and the negative, or conflict enhancing potential of education. A careful examination of the linkage between education conflict and peace building in Afghanistan demonstrates the ways in which education policy reforms have to be deliberately used creating the conditions for building a foundation for reconciliation and sustainable peace.
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.
Aside from the aforesaid facts, a glance at our deserted national priorities disheartens us of interminable irrational and abrupt priorities which happen to be mostly influential than inspirational. The undertakings executed under the influence of forged circumstances than national priorities do not yield the desired result based on national interest.
The misleading opinion owned by political elite deluded them of genuine issues, instead are stuck to unfound motives in seeking the traces of others involvement 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 politicians are lost in delusion and do not try to revisit the grey areas of governance; consequently improvement has 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 owing and following a clear stance.
Formerly a report surfaced that unearthed that three million children remain out of school across the country, despite partial improvement in the quality of education and staff capacity. This is a worrisome figure reflecting government’s interest towards educational betterment.
According to Ministry of Education in recent year, more than nine million students, 40 percent of them girls, were enrolled in schools across the country. Over 700,000 others, 60 percent of them females, attended literacy programs. It further entails 24 percent of children were still deprived of education due to lack of professional staff, closure of schools in insecure areas and other challenges. The unending state negligence depicts, a magic might reverse the notorious state Afghanistan faces at present.
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.
The role of education for joint uplift of a nation is irrefutably central. The collective socio-economic and political advances of a nation are determined by the degree of concentration diverted to improve its literacy graph and the amount of resources allocated to this preliminary societal need. A nation reaches to prominence, turn unbeatable and matchless, only when greater intrepid steps are taken to eliminate illiteracy by declaring the state of educational emergency. The profound significance of education in societal ascend is established and undisputed, contrary to being failed to inspire our politicians.