One of the basic factors that have been emphasized the most after the downfall of Taliban in Afghanistan has been education. And there have been developments as well in this regard. Nonetheless there are still serious concerns regarding the evolution and quality of education and the capability of the children to avail the opportunities of getting education.

Education Minister Ghulam Farooq Wardak admitted on Saturday, March 23 that despite improvement in the quality of education and staff capacity, three million children remain out of school across the country. According to the news reports he made the remarks after President Hamid Karzai rang the bell at the Amani High School in Kabul to mark the launch of the new educational year.

“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 minister said. In the past 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. Roughly, 200,000 teachers taught them at more than 15,000 educational institutions and 22,000 literacy centers,” he said.

It is really important that the concerned authorities must pay full attention to the development of the education as it is a tested fact that the nations that have gotten strong hold of education in the process of their evolution have been able to achieve remarkable gains. 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.

Our country Afghanistan is one of the countries where proper attention has not been paid to education sector. One of the basic reasons has been the continuous instability overwhelming the society. The wars and conflicts - national, regional and international – that have been using Afghan land as their theater have made the development in social and educational fields suffocate to a large extent. Starting from Soviet invasion in 1979, one can count myriads of tussles and disturbances hampering the establishment of satisfactory education system. The problems, more basic in nature, have been the focal point of people’s concentration rather than the education system.

Prior to Soviet invasion, the most notable contribution for the growth of education was made my King Zahir Shah (1933-73). He made primary school available to almost half of the children of the country who were under the age of 12. He also made certain contribution regarding the improvement of secondary education and Kabul University. The second phase of educational development started with the government of People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, which designedmany education policies in order to disseminate modern education among the people. Education was emphasized for both male and female. It was the first occasion when female education was given considerable importance. According to sources, in 1988, women comprised 40 percent of all doctors and 60 percent of all teachers in Kabul University. Keeping in view the discriminated status of women in our history in mind, these numbers are just extra-ordinary. Further, 440,000 female students were enrolled in different educational institutions and about 80,000 more were enrolled in some sorts of literacy programs and campaigns. One of the basic reasons of the rise of women participation in education sector was the support of the government by Soviet Union that believed in principles of socialism, not depriving any one of education on the basis of gender. The presence and role of Soviet Union in Afghanistan can always be condemned because of its imperialistic nature but its influence can never be ignored on the development of education sector and the numbers mentioned above favor the argument.

But the civil wars that followed the withdrawal of Soviet regime from Afghanistan proved to be havoc for the education sector. Because of absence of strong government at the center, the situation of peace and order was shattered into thousand pieces. Various educational institutions were affected by ugly manifestation of violent intentions. And in the mid 90’s there were only 650 schools functioning throughout the country. And what could be the number of students who attended the classes during the days of such frequent clashes is not difficult to figure out. But the worst days for the education system of the country were yet to come.

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. In almost all the madressahs the curriculum included the obsolete teaching methodologies and syllabus. 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 systems.

With the fall of Taliban regime, the education system in Afghanistan has been able to make important improvements; however, much work has yet to be done.

Provided that there have been appreciations of formal educational institutes, a large number of madressahs still exist in the country and people have the inclination to send their children to such madressahs, where they have “Extremism” as the only subject in their syllabus. In addition, discriminating sentiments against females are very common in most parts of the country. It is still considered not appropriate enough to admit them in schools.

At the 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.