Schooling sector is considered as the back bone of education. A well-established and properly functioning schooling system can provide firm basis for the higher education. Otherwise, a poor schooling system will also waste the heavy investments done in the sector of higher education.

A practical observation of the education sector of Afghanistan especially the schools reveal to us both satisfactory and frightening factors.
With the establishment of a democratic government and restoration of peace, there came a brisk development in all the fields of life and almost all the world powers diverted their attention at Afghanistan to quicken its reconstruction and rehabilitation of the distorted nation.

This resulted in various projects of millions of dollars in different fields. This gave rise to the rapid expansion in the business activities of country as well. Same or even wider expansion was observed in the field of education.

Almost all the existing state-owned schools were reopened and the rehabilitation work was rapidly started as a result of which, the number of state-owned schools functioning in different parts of the country are quite satisfactory, if not sufficient. But there are so many problems that are surrounding these schools, some of which are mentioned below:

(1) Less number of schools:
Most evident problem is the lack of schools comparing to the population and number of kids who are in the age to attend school. It is the reason why we see that there is very much crowd on these schools and rapid increase in the population added by the return of millions of refugees from neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran raises the need of initiating an immediate action plan to increase the number of these schools. It is also the reason that in most of the schools, there are three shifts of education starting from early morning till dark in the evening.

This system is not in accordance with the standards being utilized in the world because the hours available for study are very less. Usually, students are given maximum three hours of classes every day (and in most cases, even less) and thus the learning output of this limited time is also limited. This has in fact, developed a sense of carelessness among the students towards their studies and school which can be seen by the fact that very less of them follow the uniform rules of school, very few of them carry bags to school and other serious symptoms can be noticed in this regard.

(2) Incompetent teachers:
With the exception of a small minority of teachers who are adequately qualified and properly trained and experienced, majority of the school teachers are not of the standard where they should be able to impart good knowledge to their students. In fact, this problem came into existence due to the circumstances.

When a large number of schools were reopened in all the corners of the country, it was not possible to find highly qualified teachers to all these schools. Two more reasons accompanying this problem were the instable security conditions which discouraged the teachers to accept a job and go to the remote areas of different provinces. Second reason was the low salary package of teachers so many of the teachers also left their field to find a job in NGOs, and other organizations that offered many-fold handsome salary.

Still there are thousands of teachers in different remote areas who are only 8th Graders, teaching in the schools of their locality and a recent attempt of government to replace them failed after the mass protest from the teachers and their political supporters.

(3) Corruption:
Like all the other sectors of country, education sector also received aid of millions of dollars and a good budget is allocated for its expenses every year but just like the rampant corruption in different ministries of government, education sector is also not free of this epidemic. Corruption is flagrant in the form of unnecessary hiring, ghost teachers and administrators, stealing of materials (books, stationery items, food items for students, bags etc.) by the school administration, and even there are reports that the salary granted by the government to the teachers is not given fully to them and the people in the middle deduce some of it without the knowledge of teachers.

(4) Lack of system and management:
The condition of discipline is very poor in almost all the state-owned schools which has greatly affected the performance of these schools. This is due to the lack of system being used and lack of proper management. Actually, 30-40 years old system of management is being used in schools and there has not been done any effort to upgrade the level of management of schools according to the demands of time.

When the education system was restored, same old school administrators again took the charge who are not ready to adopt the modern techniques. Same old and lengthy ways of keeping record, generating syllabus and other administrative procedures that were in use many years ago and are obsolete and out-dated in the present situation, are in use which has made the whole system of schooling too ineffective and inefficient.

With these major problems, state-owned schools are also facing some other problems like lack of facilities, lack of standardized training for teachers and many more but if the above mentioned major problems are solved, these minor problems may not be much hazardous.

After this, we must have a look at the condition of private schools. It is better to be reminded here that in under-developed and developing countries of the world, where government schools are not fully and effectively functioning, the network of private schools has nicely filled the gap and in countries like Pakistan, India and others, private schools have done nice job by providing quality education to the students and are considered to be the back-bone of their educational system.

Just like the above mentioned countries, the scenario is not different in Afghanistan either. When the state-owned schools did not come up with the expectations of people, people started admitting their children in private schools and with this came the trend of opening private schools and now we can see a good network of private schools functioning in the major cities and even the far-flung parts of the country.

But once again, there are positive and negative aspects of these schools. A small minority of these schools have been established by those rich and experienced minds that are having objectives of imparting quality education and are also aware of the good techniques and practices in this regard. The number of these schools are very limited and are functioning only in the major cities of the country due to which there is great rush on them and getting admission is a very tough task.

As these private schools are run on the fees collected from the students so a large number of people also opened private schools with an aim of making profit. These schools were opened by those who had money to invest in the beginning but no experience or intention of imparting quality education or serving the new generation of the country.

Due to the weak system of control by the ministry of education on these schools, these schools are functioning unsatisfactorily and their output is also very poor but as people are not having any other option except to enroll their children in these schools, they remain as the final choice of helpless parents

Private Schools; Problems and Performance:

In the last ten years, private schools have done a remarkable job by establishing a parallel network of schools along with government schools. Majority of these schools are not performing according to the international standards but, anyhow, increased competition is the factor that will force these schools to improve their standards and with the passage of time, schools with better performance and output will grow and expand while schools with poor performance will be eliminated.

There are also present a number of private schools that are performing very well and parents and students have shown their satisfaction from them but unfortunately the number of these schools is very limited. As far as the rest of the private schools are concerned, they try their best to increase their income and decrease their expenses. They hire less-qualified teachers on meager salaries, hire a cheap building with poor facilities in it, collect money from parents under different pretexts, and try their best to increase their income. As a result of all these, the performance of these schools is not much satisfactory.

Solutions:
While addressing the problems of Afghan schools, there can be separate solutions for the state-owned and private schools but there are also present some general issues that are common for both of these schools:
(1) Increased Budget Allocation:
It was quite satisfactory that 15% of the present fiscal year's budget was allocated for education sector which would facilitate to expand the field of education for opening new schools, increasing salaries of teachers, providing facilities to the students and many more. A part of this budget can also be allocated for the assistance of standard private schools.

(2) Increased Foreign Assistance:
There are many NGO's and foreign organizations working in the educational sector. They are doing an impressive work by arranging teachers' training, publishing supplementary books for students and teachers and working to improve the system of school management. It is needed that government should ask for more assistance from its foreign allies and the private organizations to expand their activities in the field of education. The expertise and skills of these organizations and international institutes can make good impact in bringing betterment in the Afghan institutes.

(3) Increasing the benefits for teachers:
The reason that sharp and good brains of country hesitate to enter the profession of teaching is due to the fact that teaching is one of the least-paid professions of the country. When an engineer, or a business expert is paid from 1500-2000 dollars a month, majority of the teachers are paid only 200-300 dollars and in some cases, it is even less. Moreover, they are not provided with any other facility like medical, residence, transport etc. because of which people try all their best to leave teaching and get any other job that should be having more monetary benefit.

No doubt, teachers are given due respect in the society but having a look at their poor economic conditions, they are not given due social importance and it is the reason why, a teacher usually hesitates to disclose his profession in the public or in his social circle.

In our neighboring countries of India and Pakistan, a senior teacher and professor earns so much that he can live a comfortable life and also has a good status in the society because of which more and more people choose teaching as a profession and the sharp brains are gradually increasing in the field.

It is also necessary that afghan teachers should also be given good salary and other benefits so that good brains should not leave this profession and this field should be attractive enough to keep the good brains so that better teachers should elevate the level of learning.

(4) Improved Teachers' Training:
As mentioned earlier, both in government and private sector, most of the teachers are not aware of the latest and effective techniques of teaching which in return affect the productive learning of students. The factors like motivating students, utilizing latest techniques of teaching, using the psychology for handling the behavioral problems of students and numerous other factors need to be taught to the teachers. For this purpose, there can be training sessions and there is also need of a permanent institute where teachers should be trained on permanent basis. In the long run, it can be made mandatory that all the teachers should join the course of this institute before starting their profession.

(5) Improving Government Schools:
In almost all the developed countries of the world, state-owned schools are functioning very well by providing quality and free education to the students that people don't think of any other parallel system and thus there is no concept of private schools in these countries. It is also a fact that if state-owned schools can provide quality education, people would never think of any private institute. It is thus necessary that government should work to improve the standard of its schools and for this purpose, all the necessary steps should be taken.

(5) Assisting Private sector:
Private sector has been found to be very useful in providing quality education in many of the countries of the world where state-owned schools are not functioning properly. In our country as well, there are a number of private institutes that are doing an impressive job by imparting quality education. Such standard institutes can be helped to grow and expand their functioning by providing them with assistance in form of school buildings, transportation facilities, and facilities for teachers and others.

In this regard, well-reputed private institutes of the world especially of our neighboring countries can be invited to open their schools in our country as well and we can utilize their expertise and experience in the field of education and they will bring better competition in the private sector and uplift the general condition of education in the country.

(6) Revision of Syllabus:
At present, number of subjects being taught in the high schools is more than the needed and the contents of these subjects are also not according to the needs of the practical life. Similarly, there are extra and obligatory languages of German, French, Russian and other languages in some of the schools.

While taking any such decision, first it should be checked if learning any specific language is going to benefit our students or not and the learning of any language should be implemented in all the schools and not in some schools. Foreign donors should be made clear that they should not demand the teaching of their language in return to their donations and assistance. In the same way, subjects that are not going to be used in university level should be taken out of the syllabus and the material and contents of the syllabus should also be revised and improved.

(7) Emphasis on Moral Education:
Along with the Islamic education, there is a need of moral or behavioral teaching accompanied with the psychological understanding of the students so that different kind of emotional and behavioral problems of students should be solved. Having a look at the present deteriorated behavioral condition of our youth, the need of any such subject is even more necessary.

If government and private sector worked honestly on the points discussed above, we would be able to bring a generation that would be professionally competent and behaviorally sound and pleasant, ensuring the long run success and prosperity of the nation.