In 2002, the US Geological Survey published a list of more than 1000 deposits, mines, and occurrences in Afghanistan to confirm the country's wealth of mineral and hydrocarbon resources. Among the minerals found in abundance are gold, copper, iron, mercury, lead, and rare metals such as cesium, lithium, niobium, and tantalum.
Tantalum, which is also known as Colton, is a rare element used for capacitor essential in the manufacture of cell phones, computers, and digital cameras. Lithium is necessary for high-tech batteries, specialty glasses and ceramics, and for some high-performance metal alloys. Niobium is used in steel alloys. Unfortunately, the acute shortage of professionals, experts, weak infrastructure and constant insurgency make them difficult to be extracted, which means that Afghanistan has everything with exception to sufficient human resource.
Human resource or capita plays foundational role in development of a country or a society; achieved through universalization of education, making it at reach of the rich and poor, equally. In the quest of sustainable change, nations have passed through enormous revolutionary changes, catastrophes, wars and conflicts; succeeded in searching out the secret being education, enlightening the societies with scientific inventions, innovations and incorporation of abstract civilized etiquettes, making the world a better place to live in.
The political leadership recognizing education; the versatile element for societal advancement is delayed and denied. Out of 19 public sector universities and 18 centers for higher education in Afghanistan, none falls in first 5000 good universities of the world. Even the American University of Afghanistan doesn't meet the criteria of international ranking of worlds' best university. This depicts the worst state of affairs, encompassing educational bankruptcy, acute shortage of basic conveniences ranging from trained and qualified teaching faculty to latest scientific equipments.
The educational woes deepened by fabricated and exaggerated figures surfaced by ministry of Education, in primary and secondary levels. Public expenditure on education consists of expenditure on education includes government spending on educational institutions (both public and private), educational administration as well as subsidies for private entities (students/households and other privates entities). The Education Ministry's budget is 15 percent of the government's budget, yet 67 percent of all civil servants come under the Education Ministry, placing intolerable strains on the ministry's budget.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living, and quality of life for countries worldwide; regarding Afghanistan, it is the 15th least developed country, out of 187 countries of the world; the reason being the lowest literacy rate, reflecting other arenas of societal downturn. The fundamental problems and the underlined solutions can be listed below.
According to the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative in Afghanistan only 13 percent of Afghan girls complete primary school compared to 32 percent of boys. The disparity is even worse in terms of basic literacy. Only 18 percent of young women aged 15 to 24 are literate, compared to 50 percent of young men in the same age bracket. Disregarding obsolete traditional perception about female's inferiority, grant of economic incentive for poor parents and legislation against child marriage, increased educational opportunities, ascertain greater enrolment in schools and universities.
The non-availability of trained, qualified and professional teachers is another dilemma. According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Education, 80 percent of the country's 165,000 teachers have achieved only the equivalent of a high school education or did not complete their post-secondary studies.
One of the major contributing factors behind teachers' low capacity and morale are their meager salaries, which have not been increased over the last six years. The government has paid the least attention to teachers that do the most important task in society. Allocation of handsome amount of budget for teachers' remuneration, fixation of educational requirements for teachers, to all academic levels and facilitation of training opportunities to teachers, seeking the help of international and regional countries, can boost up the reclined literacy rate.
Since the beginning of the Civil War in 1978, school curricula have changed many times under various governing parties. Curricula under the Taliban (and the earlier Mujahedeen) were loaded with extremist Islamic teachings. Even before that, the curriculum was politicized by the communist regime in the 1980s. Standardization of text books with modern thoughts, promoting civic rights, devoid of prejudiced contents, and supporting creativity shall constitute a grown up society with high literacy.
Insufficient number of schools and lack of educational infrastructure lessens the speed of literacy augmentation. The political vision and will, which let the derived constitutional power, exercised in true faith for public welfare, must be displayed.
Afghanistan's political insecurity has threatened all fields of development and the education sector is no exception. The Taliban regularly publish "night letters", unsigned leaflets secretly distributed overnight in the southern and eastern provinces, demanding that parents stop sending their children to government-run schools. They have also targeted teachers who have violated their warnings to stop teaching in these schools and, in the far remote villages of the south, have personally appeared in schools, warning that they would kill students that continued to attend.
According to the Education Ministry, around 150 students and teachers have been killed so far in military attacks by insurgents. Around 100 schools have been set on fire all over the country, including in the relatively secure provinces in the north.
The security threats led to the closure of 600 schools across the southern provinces by late September, depriving 300,000 students of primary and secondary education. Devising clear counter insurgency, terrorism and extremism strategy shall encourage the greater enrolments in educational institutes.
Education exerts a pivotal role in individual and social uplift, imparting qualities, skills and proficiencies, enabling him seeking solution to genuine issues of human society. Education has an impact on peace and stability. If the Afghan government and the international community which spends billions in Afghanistan facing the enemy militarily want to bring peace and security to Afghanistan, they must play a strong, supportive role in pressing the Afghan authorities to focus upon educating Afghans.
The essential need is that there must be greater and better educational opportunities by launching education emergency inside the country. Devising clear counter insurgency, terrorism and extremism strategy shall encourage the greater enrolments in educational institutes.
The Afghan education authorities should not try to go alone. They should encourage private higher educational organizations which may be more apt to develop genuine long-term relations, given their personal investment not garnered from government funds to invest in the country to open degree programmes in discipline which will train Afghans to take their place in the global arenas of discoveries, business, commerce, international trade, international relations, and leadership.
The Afghan education authorities should encourage international private education entities to invest in the nation and its people by making the currently extraordinarily difficult approval process much leaner and rational.
The rich investments made on education in both public and private sectors, with educational, social and political participation of every citizen given prime significance becomes result oriented, productive and commendable.
No aspect of human endeavor undermines the dignitary role of education in the formation, building and structuring the institutions under constitutional framework that leads to nation building. Education in true spirit enables us, fighting evils, such as corruption, fraudulence, deception, cheating and emboldens greater individual, social and material advancements.