KABUL (SW) – A conversation with 30 students, including 17 girls and 13 boys, conducted by Salam Watandar, reveals that young people face significant challenges in accessing online education.
The students interviewed in this report mentioned that due to poor internet quality and frequent power outages, they cannot consistently follow their online lessons.
Sayed Hadi Hashemi, a resident of Balkh who started learning Pashto language online six months ago, says that poor internet quality has disrupted his education. He adds, “When I try to attend class, the internet is weak, and I can’t join. When I do manage to join, the sound is so scattered that I can’t even understand the teacher properly. This has caused me a lot of problems.”
Maryam, a 20-year-old resident of Kabul, who continued her computer science studies online after universities closed for girls, says, “When I’m in the middle of a lesson, the internet either cuts off or becomes too weak, causing us to lose sound or video. This is the biggest issue that has negatively affected our learning.”
This report, which includes interviews from eight provinces, shows that besides poor internet quality, the lack of consistent electricity is also a challenge to online education.
Zainuddin, a resident of Samangan, explains that the frequent power outages have sometimes caused him to miss online classes. “I’ve been learning report writing and photography online for four months now, but slow internet speeds, high costs, and power outages have caused me to miss some lessons,” he added.
Respondents in this report also highlight the high cost of internet and the lack of discounts on internet packages as additional challenges to their online education.
Sayed Tareq, a 26-year-old resident of Uruzgan, says that the high cost of internet packages has made it difficult for him to attend his online lessons regularly. “Many times, I miss my online lessons because I don’t have internet. Paying for internet is a serious problem. Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of an online lesson, my internet package runs out, and then I have to spend 1,000 or 1,500 afghanis to activate a new package.”
The students and interviewees in this report urge telecommunications authorities to reduce the cost of internet packages.
Mohammad Rasul Mirzaie, a resident of Badakhshan, says, “Our request from the telecommunications companies is to lower the price of internet packages so that we can use them and keep up with our online lessons.”
Khadija Niazi, a resident of Kabul, suggests that telecommunications companies must offer special internet packages to students. She adds, “If special offers or discounts on internet costs are provided to those taking online courses, it would be very helpful and solve many people’s problems.”
Despite these concerns, Jalaluddin Shams, spokesperson for the Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ATRA), states that within the next two years, the quality and speed of internet services from all telecom networks in Afghanistan will improve.
He adds, “In the next two years, all telecom networks will upgrade to 3G and 4G services, which will significantly improve the quality of the internet. The cost of 1GB internet package, which was previously 110 afghanis, has now been reduced to 95 afghanis, representing a nearly 14% decrease compared to before.”
While youths express concerns over the challenges facing online education, many students have turned to online learning in the past three years, following the closure of schools and universities to girls.
