Handicap International experience in Afghanistan - CBM

to take this into consideration when instituting measures regarding the education of children with these formsof disability. At present, the rare cases when they receive appropriate education is when there are schools,often run by NGOs that have specialised teachers, methods and materials. But these opportunities are veryfew and mainly located in large cities. Moreover, these structures are costly and very difficult to set up andsustain due to lack of adequate human resources. In the long run, the only sustainable solution is training ofteachers to include children with disability in the mainstream.Effectiveness of Education: LiteracyLiteracy rates are the proportion of persons who are literate in the overall population. However, in differentcountries, the means of assessing literacy vary from self-reporting, to merely writing your own name. Thisoften results in overestimation of the literacy rates and a lack of comparability. The latest “Education for AllGlobal Monitoring Report 2006: Literacy for Life” states that the global literacy rate is 81.9% (76.4% fordeveloping countries and over 98% for developed and transition countries) 29 . The literacy rates for the NDSA,as in other surveys carried out in Afghanistan, are based on household data. All interviewees who were overthe age of 8 were asked whether they knew how to read and write. If the answer was YES, then he/she wasasked to write down a short sentence that was presented by the surveyor 30 . If the interviewee was able towrite the sentences without much hesitation and completely then he/she was considered to be literate by thesurveyor who wrote down his/her own answer.When childrendo access toschool andcompleteprimaryeducation,theyeffectivelylearn howto read andwriteTable 7: Literacy Rates: Comparing Various Household SurveysSourcesYear ofSurveyOverallAverageAverage forFemalesAverage forMalesMICS(Persons over age 15) 31 2003 22.2% 8.1% 36.1%NRVA (Persons over age 6) 32 2003 23.7% 10.3% 36.9%NDSA (Persons over age 7) 2005 27.2% 15.1% 36.1%There seems to be consistency between the various surveys that have been carried out in Afghanistan. TheNRVA and the MICS present slightly lower rates than the NDSA. When children do access to school andcomplete primary education, they effectively learn how to read and write. This may be a reflection of theefforts that have been made in the field of education, especially over recent years. But, the gap betweenpersons with disability and non-disabled remains a reality.Figure 30: Literacy Rates According to Age ofDisability and Gender for Persons who AccessedPublic School1009080706050403020100Disabled BeforeAge 7Disabled BetweenBefore Ages 7 and 14Disabled After14• Literacy for Females• Literacy for MalesNon-Disabled29There is no data for Afghanistan regarding these rates in the GMR 2006.30The sentence that interviewees had to write down was adapted to their age.31Multi Indicator Cluster Survey, 2003, op. cit.32Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Vulnerability Analysis Unit (2004), op. cit.40 Understanding the Challenge Ahead