KABUL (SW) – A number of young people have missed or dropped out of education due to poverty and the prevailing culture in the society, Salam Watandar found in an exclusive survey.
In this survey aimed to find out the reasons for the young people leaving education, 58.9% of the respondents said that economic problems, lack of interest in education, lack of family support, as well as early marriage caused them to not be able to continue education or to leave studies.
Salam Watandar conducted a survey in Kabul in order to investigate the educational drop out rates among young people and its reasons, the effectiveness of education, the consequences of educational dropping out in society and the level of satisfaction of educated youths with their education. 320 people participated in this survey that 63 (19.7%) of the respondents were women.
Out of 320 respondents, 188 (57.7%) said that they missed or dropped out of education; of them, 55.08% have finished school, 20.8% have primary education, 18.1% have post-baccalaureate degrees and 3.8% are illiterate.
51.1% of young people who dropped out of education cited economic problems, 27.1% lack of interest or hopelessness, 11.7% lack of family support or early marriage, and another 10.1% said that unfavorable conditions in the country were the main reasons they have not been able to continue their education.
19-year-old resident of Jowzjan Mohibullah, a participant in the survey who dropped out of school, says that the political conditions in the country and the bad economic situation made him stop studying. “I studied until the seventh grade. After that, the economic situation and the war in our region made me stop going to school. During the Republican period, there was a war in our region, and sometimes we moved to one place, and sometimes to another place, and this made me stop studying.”
Abed Sultani, 20, another respondent in this survey, who left his studies in the faculty of Social Sciences in the second year, says that he was not able to continue his studies due to his lack of trust in the academic future and the bad economic conditions. “I left in the third semester because I do not have hope for the future of my education in Afghanistan.”
Among the young people participating in this survey, 87.2% said that they are worried about their future, and 5.9% said that they are less worried, and another 6.9% said they have no worries about not being educated.
Abed Walid, who studied up to the seventh grade of the school and could not continue his studies due to economic problems, says that although he wanted to become a doctor in the future, but poverty did not let him move towards achieving his dream. “I am worried about where we are heading. I want to study for my future, but due to economic problems, I can’t study and I am very worried about my future because I will have an unknown fate,” he said.
In this survey, the effectiveness of education on the lives of educated youths and their trust in education and their views on educational conditions in the country have also been examined.
44.2% of the respondents said that they are less satisfied with the income they receive through education, 34.1% said that they are not satisfied at all, 12.4% said that they are a bit satisfied, and another 9.3% said that they are very satisfied with their income.
Among the participants in the survey, 45.8% work in professions according to their field of study, 29% said that they work against their field of study, 13.7% said that their field of work and study match to some extent, and 11.5% said that they are jobless.
Hamed Sadat, who graduated from the field of journalism and worked in this field for a while, says that due to the lower income from working in this field, he is now working in one of the private institutes.
“I worked for a while in the field I studied, but problems did not allow me to work in accordance with my field, because the income I had from my duties was not satisfactory to me, and now I am performing duties contrary to my academic field, and this is also not satisfactory for me,” he added.
Another respondent, Yesna Amiri, who also graduated from the field of journalism, says: “I was satisfied with the field I was studying when I was a student and I thought that I would achieve my dreams and get a better job through this, but the changes that came and the restrictions that were imposed, I could not achieve what I wanted. Now, the income is no satisfactory according to the field I have studied.”
On the other hand, educational experts say that economic problems in the society, lack of awareness among a number of people, despair about the future of education and unemployment have caused young people to stop studying or drop out.
Jamaluddin Sulaimani, one of the educational experts, says, “From the point of view of work and life, or from any point of view, young people live in an insecurity, and this insecurity is not only war, it is economic insecurity, it is hopelessness about the future, it is also cultural and social insecurity which cause young people to stop studying.”
He further elaborated that in order to solve this challenge and motivate young people to study, they should be given hope and there must be a guarantee of work after obtaining education.
Salam Watandar tried to make specific statistics of the young people participating in 2024 year entrance exam, but due to the fact that the exam process continues, did not succeed.
However, preliminary statistics shared with Salam Watandar by the National Examinations Committee show that more than 97,000 people have registered for this year’s exam.
