KABUL (SW) – President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said on Monday serious attention has not been paid to the quality of education and teaching in the country.
He said this while inaugurating the new academic year, with a delay of two days, here. Ghani stressed the current education system in Afghanistan should not repeat the 19th and 20th Century academic systems of the West.
He added there is a dire need to streamline and upgrade the academic system on the lines of 21st Century demands. The president expressed optimism that the improvements can be brought in the future. Ghani said a robust education system can help generate skilled and productive manpower, and ensure stability.
The president announced work has begun on constructing 2700 new schools across the country. He added budgets would be earmarked for more schools this year. Ghani announced up to 11,000 new teachers would be hired this year.
Speaking on the occasion, Mirwais Balkhi, minister for the Ministry of Education, announced efforts are underway to lift capacity, bring reforms and improvement in this sector. He added work has also commenced to digitalize the certificates and put an end to ad-hoc system in the MoE.
This comes as the latest United Nations Children’s Fund report has noted that nearly half of all Afghan children aged between 7 and 17 years old – 3.7 million – are missing out on school due to worsening security seen in recent years. The study, part of the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children launched by the UNICEF also marked child marriage, shortage of female teachers and poor infrastructure as the main reasons further aggravating the situation.
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