Education is one of the necessities of the humans and, therefore, a prime responsibility and obligation of the states and governments to impose it without any regional or class discrimination. Many states like that of ours, myopically perceive the fate of nation guided by foreign investments or donations which is unarguable fallacy. It is the right time, to realize, education economy can duly carry us along the avenues of long-lasting success. Without giving education first priority we can not keep pace with technological, innovative and scientific advancement the world has attained. The education itself is a proof to the progressiveness and development of the nations. The most developed nations in the worlds have most developed and best education systems while, the underdeveloped, struggling ones and one with the bad economy and global ranks have the bad education systems when compared to the developed ones.
Education is a versatile agent of change that guarantees stability, social cohesion and societal uplift whilst ensuring respect for human rights. Many societal problems get regulated after education stand 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 daydream.
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 lost in delusion try not to revisit the grey 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 owing and following a clear stance.
Afghanistan making education sector’s priority is reflected from its spending on education. At present the 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.
On the contrary, the state of education is aggravated in this piece of land. By 2013 there were 10.5 million out of 27.5 million population attending schools in Afghanistan. About 35% of its population is unemployed and 36% live below the national poverty line, suffering from shortages of housing, clean drinking water, and electricity. On United Nations’ Human Development Index Afghanistan ranks 175th with nation’s GDP stands at about $34 billion. This is far less than Japan’s spending on education.
The worries do not end here, in fact the teacher equally worst affected by dysfunctional education. The information available confirms, 73% of teachers lack the minimum required qualification of grade 14 graduation and are in need of professional development; over 5,000 of Educational Institutions do not have usable buildings which has a direct impact on quality of education. This is the worst state of affairs when the incumbent government is silent on the declining effectiveness of educational system and its immediate negative effect on the holistic rise of a nation is evident.
It is irrefutably crucial; teachers are important stakeholders for better upbringing of forthcoming generation. If their rights are denied or delayed, then how would one expect a vital change be brought in the illiteracy stricken society? How could the dream of a matchless and outstanding country come true when the pumping organ of education sector; teachers are denied rights to fair livelihood?
Formerly, in a ceremony marking teacher’s day in Kabul, President Ghani promised to increase the salaries of teachers and to allot each of them a piece of land within six months – a process which has not happened. Months after the unmet promise enraged the teachers and coerced them out in the street to get their demand met. There are dozens of teachers from different parts of Kabul went on strike since former Saturday at Habibia High School. Despite the teachers’ strike entering in month, the government falling short coming up with an agreeable solution to protesting teachers, marks the underlying indifference and government’s negligence.
Contrarily, the quality of poor instruction should preliminarily be considered. 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 high quality and standard of books must be kept on top priorities. There may be poorly constructed or the buildings may be poorly maintained. The students may not even have chairs and desks where they can sit and work. This problem can be handled, by committing more resources for public sector education. An autonomous Education Commission should be build whose members are nominated by the government with approval from the national assembly, who should be charged with preparation of new syllabus acquainted with latest developments in the contemporary world of science and technologies and the current needs of people.
At these very dismal circumstances the government has to turn education sector into one of the well-funded sector, aiming to rid the country out of calamity of illiteracy. The government must work on training, welfare and other facilities of teachers to make it a preferable and a dignified sector. The teachers should only be inducted provided they pass various stages of test and interviews. It is right time the government gets this sector streamlined well nurtured capable to compete with developing counties of the world. 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.