Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Enhanced Integrated Framework ...

In Higher Education, universities have reopened.There are now 52,200 students inhigher education institutions taught by 2,713lecturers. Demand for higher education is currentlyfour times greater than the availableplaces in tertiary education institutions. Thenext stage of rehabilitation involves improvingthe quality of education in existing institutionsand expanding the number of places available.Partnerships with foreign universities andother educational institutions have been introducedin about half the universities. Suchpartnerships foster and provide support to developand enhance the capacity of these universities.Skills development – through technical andvocational education and training as well asfocused functional literacy – has also seen significantgrowth in the last five years. The Governmentestablished the National Skills DevelopmentProgram in 2005 as a national priorityprogram. Technical/vocational education atthe secondary level through public institutionshas seen a 10-fold increase in the last five yearswith nearly 10,500 students enrolled in 44schools. Short-term technical/vocational trainingcourses that focus on specific skills set areconducted by the non-government and the privatesectors. Similarly, functional literacy foryouth and young adults are carried out by boththe public and non-government sectors. In thepublic sector alone nearly 320,000 persons undertooka 9-month literacy course in 2007, 75percent of whom were female students.The key achievements noted above are commendablebut are by no means the whole picture.While the Government is satisfied withthe progress made so far, it recognizes themany challenges that lie ahead in achieving itslong-term vision and medium term objectives.These challenges pertain to meeting the growingdemand for access to quality and relevanteducation.The demand for education far outstrips thesupply across the sector in Afghanistan today.Only half of all school-age children 53 are en-53 School age refers to children between 6-18 years of age; 6-13years = primary school which is Grades 1-6; 14-18 years = secondaryschool from Grades 7 to 12. Basic education is describedas Grades 1-9 (6-15 years of age), which is also compulsory asstated in the Constitution.rolled in schools and there are huge provincial,gender and rural/urban disparities. Eight-twopercent of children enrolled in schools are inprimary grades.Box 7.5. Progress is still required in theeducation sectorHalf of all schools today do not haveadequate, safe or appropriate learningspaces that are conducive to parentsallowing their girls, particularly at thesecondary level, to enroll in schools. Thistogether with a severe shortage of femaleteachers in rural areas – 80 percent of ruraldistricts do not have a girls’ high schoolbecause there are no female teachersavailable locally to teach in them (there areonly 216 girls’ high schools across thecountry, a majority of them located inregional and provincial capitals). Only 28percent of all teachers are women and eightypercent of them are found in urban schools.Schools for children with special needs arewoefully lacking while those for Kuchichildren are inadequate. Every year between40,000-70,000 youth graduate from highschools across the country but only 25-30percent of them are able to enter tertiaryeducation due to the severe shortage ofplaces in higher education institutions. In2006 there were 58,300 applicants for entryinto tertiary education institutions. Only17,700 were successful. Most of theuniversities have buildings that requirerehabilitation and there is a drastic shortageof qualified lecturers.The lack of access to education in the recentpast has resulted in a massive backlog of illiteratepeople in Afghanistan. Based on recentnational surveys 54 it is estimated that only28 percent of the population in the country canread. Disaggregated by gender this statisticreveals that only 18 percent of females and36 percent of males are able to read, a female tomale ratio of 0.5. Based on population projectionsdeveloped specifically for this work andliteracy rates by the Afghan Institute for RuralDevelopment it is estimated that there are11.2 million illiterate persons in the country54 NRVA 2005 and projected population projections specificallydeveloped for this report.Economical and Social Development 115