Learning in a Harsh Land: Scenes from Afghanistan’s Schools

Andrew Natsios, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, showed off a rebuilt structure that now serves as a teacher's college during a December 23 slide show in Washington. "Two-thirds of the teachers in Afghanistan are women, and they are going to lead the way toward the reintroduction of women in a visible role in Afghan society, which is another reason why we did this," Natsios said. CARE, the international aid organization, says it trained 35 teaching instructors in March to help prepare 1,860 teachers to return to classrooms. "Many of Afghanistan's female teachers have not stepped into a classroom since 1996 when the Taliban came to power," says the agency. Girls as young as six and women as old as 21 are enrolling in school openly – though extremists have fired rockets at girls' schools in 2002. While Afghan education has made progress since the harsh rule of the Taliban, far-reaching change is slow in coming.

Many poor families resist the idea of sending both boys and girls to school, Natsios said at the briefing. The United States has begun giving families supplemental allotments of vegetable oil, which they use for cooking, when they send girls to school. When girls do go to school, they often sit in separate classrooms from boys. They also study under harsh conditions. Many schools have not been able to translate foreign aid into buildings like the teacher's college Natsios displayed. Girls gather in a classroom that lacks a roof; chalk cannot stick to a blackboard exposed to the elements. At one school in Kabul, students stand during class because the building has no chairs. While students are eagerly embracing the chance to learn, and adults are involving themselves in school communities, conditions within schools reinforce the country's ravaged state.