Taliban have always opposed modern education and the education of the girls; especially if that education is through co-education. They showed that during their rule in Afghanistan and show now as well by threatening schools and school-going girls and women in different ways. They have thrown acid on the innocent girls going to schools, poisoned them in different ways and even demolished their schools completely.

With the rise of Taliban in 1996, the decline of modern education system which was already not in a satisfactory condition, started. Taliban banned the female education and promulgated the madressah system of education. The students were confined to a single approach towards education and that was the Clergy approach, which depended on an extremist interpretation of Islam and Islamic concepts. Investigation and research were banned strictly, and students were not allowed to question their teachers. Rather, they were asked to blindly follow what the Clergy approach had to offer them. The basic purpose of education was thus non-existent in the so-called education system of Taliban.

Unfortunately, their approach towards education has not changed even now and they have the same view and approach regarding education. They even consider violence justifiable so as to stop such education.

Nonetheless, we need to understand that Afghanistan requires years of improvement and development regarding education; therefore, it is important that all the efforts that are meant to discourage education must be dealt with iron fist. Currently, as the transition process is in progress, the new government has started functioning and the international troops are getting prepared to withdraw their forces, Taliban insurgents have started their efforts to regain as much power as they can. Unfortunately, their efforts include threatening even the education institutes and the school-going children.

According to a news report on Friday, October 24, around 50 schools in northern Sar-i-Pul province are under threat from Taliban. Sar-i-Pul provincial council head, Asadullah Khurram said in a statement that the the schools in the insurgent-controlled areas were faced with a double whammy of lacking teaching facilities and security threats. He urged the government to pay attention to the situation and address it on a priority basis as most of these schools are threatened by the armed opponents. Area people say none of these schools is functioning properly. And local clerics teach students in the ones that remain open.   

Such a situation is really tragic and requires attention by the new government. President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, few days earlier, showed his commitment to education and teachers by promising to elevate the standard of education and salaries of the teachers, which is really appreciable. However, his committed efforts to tackle the problem of insecurity that the schools around the country face will be really helpful in making education accessible to most of the children and particularly the girls.    

History has been the witness to the fact that the people who have pursued education with complete devotion and dedication have been able to make remarkable development and progress. It has been through proper development in the education sector and education system that such countries are standing much apart from others with well-being and dignity kneeling before them submissively. Through their modern education system they have not only served humanity by opening new vistas of knowledge but have also facilitated their people by bringing comfort and facilities on their door steps. Apart from that, they are on the driving seat regarding the international socio-political scenario, while the countries that lack proper emphasis on education are left much behind in almost all the fields of life.

However, the nations that have opposed education have, in fact, blocked their own way to success. They are the ones who have actually themselves have tied their feet and hands with the ropes and are not able to move ahead even though they need to do so. At the same time, they are the ones who have blindfolded themselves and think that there isn’t anything around them to see. They are, in short, in the process of fooling their own selves.

Ultimately, they are the ones who would be greatly influenced by the negative impacts of all such behavior. Though they think that they are performing some great service to their nations by keeping it unpolluted and unaffected by the germs of education, in reality, they are bounding and isolating themselves and letting themselves decay instead of being active part of the real world that demands progress, growth and modern education.

Negative approach and efforts to discourage education are really tragic and the government must make efforts to launch practical measures to curb the situation. Condemning the incidents that are meant to discourage education alone would not be sufficient to discourage such ruthless activities and would in the long run deprive the people of Afghanistan from better opportunities to get education.

At present time, nothing is so urgently required for our nation as modern education – Education that should be based on up to date information, analysis and developments in different fields of knowledge and must be aided with modern technology; education that can give the coming generation of Afghanistan an outlook other than extremism. And all these have to be provided to the people of Afghanistan without charging them much, as majority of the people are already suffering severely under the reign of deteriorated socio-economic situation.