Enhancing Access Education - Center on International ...

ENHANCING ACCESS TO EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN AFGHANISTAN

BARNETT RUBIN and CLANCY RUDEFORTH

NY U C IC

CENTER ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

May 2016

CENTER ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The world faces old and new security challenges that are more complex than our multilateral and national institutions are currently capable of managing. International cooperation is ever more necessary in meeting these challenges. The NYU Center on International Cooperation (CIC) works to enhance international responses to conflict and insecurity through applied research and direct engagement with multilateral institutions and the wider policy community.

CIC's programs and research activities span the spectrum of conflict insecurity issues. This allows us to see critical inter-connections between politics, security, development and human rights and highlight the coherence often necessary for effective response. We have a particular concentration on the UN and multilateral responses to conflict.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ENHANCING ACCESS TO EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN AFGHANISTAN

PREFACE4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS4

DISCLAIMER5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY6

OVERVIEW 6

TALIBAN POLICY AND PRACTICE TOWARD EDUCATION, PAST AND PRESENT

6

INTERVENTIONS TO ENHANCE ACCESS TO EDUCATION

7

EDUCATION AND POLITICAL SETTLEMENT 7

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 8

PART 2: PAST TALIBAN POLICY AND PRACTICE TOWARD EDUCATION 9

PART 3: CURRENT TALIBAN POLICY AND PRACTICE TOWARD EDUCATION 11

TALIBAN POLICY11

TALIBAN PRACTICE ? OVERVIEW 12

RESTRICTIONS ON GIRLS' ACCESS

14

TACTICAL AND INCIDENTAL INTERFERENCE15

PART 4: INTERVENTIONS 17

NON-STATE EDUCATION PROVISION17 DIALOGUE AND MEDIATION17

PART 5: EDUCATION AND POLITICAL SETTLEMENT20 PART 6: RECOMMENDATIONS22 APPENDIX: AFGHANISTAN'S EDUCATION STATISTICS 24 ENDNOTES25

Every school has its own story.

? Dr. Amir Mansory, Afghan educator, 2015

PREFACE

This paper examines practices of the Afghan Taliban in relation to the provision of education in Afghanistan. In particular, it focuses on the Ministry of Education's (MoE) general curriculum, which includes mathematics, sciences, social studies, languages, arts, and culture. Schools run by the MoE (maktabs) also provide several hours per week of Islamic education, though less than religious academies or madrasas, whether state-run or private. Hence the general curriculum is not "secular." This paper uses the term "general" education or curriculum to distinguish what is taught in maktabs from what is taught in madrasas. In official statements, the Taliban refer to general education as "modern" education.

The paper is intended to inform further thinking by the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) and others about how to realize the GoA's vision of providing "equitable access to quality education for all."1 The study does not purport to be a comprehensive analysis of Taliban practices. Its value may consist mainly in the primary accounts of people living in Taliban-influenced and Talibancontrolled areas. The associated analysis attempts to place those accounts within a framework useful for future efforts to improve the situation.

Research involved discussions held over several months in 2015 and 2016, including with local educators, community members and NGO personnel operating in Taliban-influenced areas, as well as with former Taliban leaders, current Taliban members and intermediaries, GoA and MoE representatives, United Nations staff at various levels, local and international journalists, and Afghan political analysts. Local interviewees were selected on the basis of the authors' interest in an area and intermediaries' ability to identify informed people from those areas. Focus was placed on provinces in southern, southeastern and eastern Afghanistan, as well as the northern province of Kunduz, which was subject to heavy fighting during the research period. These interviews were semi-structured and designed to build rapport for future efforts to enhance access to education, in addition to addressing thematic questions. Current Taliban views from extremely insecure areas were mostly obtained through intermediaries, who corresponded with armed group members in Afghanistan and Pakistan in person, and by telephone and email, then provided written and oral reports to the authors.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by a grant of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University. It could not have been carried out without the partnership of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) in Geneva. We are extremely grateful to colleagues at CIC, CHD, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the Afghanistan Analysts Network, and the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. We owe special thanks to Dr. Dana Burde of NYU's Department of Education for sharing her wealth of knowledge and research on education in Afghanistan. We also benefited from the assistance of Dr. Dipali Mukhopadhyay of Columbia University and Said Sabir Ibrahimi of CIC. Like all of CIC's work on Afghanistan since 2001, this study benefitted from the generous support of the Government of Norway.

4

ENHANCING ACCESS TO EDUCATION:CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN AFGHANISTAN

We would like to thank regional and Kabul-based staff from the MoE, UNICEF and international NGOs, as well as individuals from private educational initiatives, who spoke openly about a very sensitive topic in exchange for a promise of anonymity.

The Swedish Committee of Afghanistan and Turquoise Mountain Foundation kindly facilitated the authors' accommodation and transport in Afghanistan.

Two Afghan friends, who cannot be named, showed incredible kindness and gave endless time and effort to support the research, including by arranging discussions with a wide range of informed people from across the country.

Finally, we would like to thank the people who travelled from and through insecure areas to share their experiences. We sincerely hope their efforts will lead to carefully designed programs that enhance access to quality education for all Afghans.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in this study are those of the authors alone.

ENHANCING ACCESS TO EDUCATION:CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN AFGHANISTAN

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download