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Protect children from violence

More than 200 teachers trained on the prevention of violence against children

Since 2017 Nai Qala has been running a pre-school program. Originally with 3 classes, the program currently targets 90 classes for nearly 2,000 children in 3 provinces. Nai Qala trains the teachers, pays their salaries and equips the classrooms with the right  equipment to accommodate and teach the children. The association ensures a regular follow-up  of the classes and evaluates the project throughout the school year. The program is having a clear impact: thanks to the academic and social skills they acquire, the children are ready to start primary school, and their parents are more inclined to send them to school.

Over the last 5 years, many improvements have been made to the project. During their induction training and refresher seminars, pre-school teachers acquire skills in health, nutrition and hygiene and improve their teaching skills. Raising parents’ awareness of these issues is an integral part of the teachers’ job description.

Primary school teachers are not ready

Working closely with pre-school teachers and local communities has highlighted behaviors that are detrimental to children’s well-being and prompted Nai Qala to emphasize children’s rights in teacher training. The implementation of the project has improved the understanding of children’s rights and their protection within the communities. However, the evaluation of the pre-school program revealed a significant shortcoming when the young beneficiaries start primary school and are confronted with inappropriate behavior from their teacher.

In Afghanistan, beating and other forms of aggression are often considered normal practice for disciplining and educating children. Unfortunately, teachers are unaware of the harmful effects of such violence on children’s abilities and future well-being, and of other methods of maintaining discipline and encouraging pupils to study. The belief that “good manners cannot be learned without blows” is well established.For victims of violence, school can become a trial rather than an opportunity. The promise and potential of education and the excitement of discovery and learning are undermined by pain, trauma and fear. The experience of violence at school is a cause of school drop-outs.

Raising awareness and building the capacity of teachers

To address the shortcomings of the teaching profession, Nai Qala has set up a violence prevention program. The association invited primary school teachers and the heads of the primary schools to which the pre-school classes are attached. More than 130 teachers from around sixty primary schools in the provinces of Bamyan, Daikundi and Ghazni took part in a week’s training alongside 90 teachers from Nai Qala’s pre-school classes.

The program included a refresher course on child development and needs, psychology, an introduction to positive classroom management, pedagogy and the implementation of strategies to prevent violence in schools. The pre-school teachers were active participants, inspiring the primary school teachers and sharing their experiences.

The violence prevention program runs throughout the school year and includes several training modules and on-site monitoring by trained staff. Each primary school has put in place an action plan. After just a few weeks, concrete changes are taking place. Most schools have already raised awareness of the issue among teachers who were not present at the training session. Some headteachers worked together to set up a timetable linked to learning objectives, a gap and source of stress for teachers. Other schools invited parents to an information session. Some teachers drew up a charter of good conduct with their pupils. On a more personal level, many participants questioned their behavior as teachers… and also as parents.Following on from the program that has already been in place for several years, the teachers in the pre-school classes run by Nai Qala are applying positive pedagogy in the classroom and encouraging parents to behave in a caring manner.

Breaking the patterns of violence

Schools are uniquely placed to provide quality education and to offer children the opportunity to cultivate their creative and critical talents, to acquire practical skills, to develop their self-esteem and social relationships, and to grow in dignity as individuals. Schools can also serve as important resources for the development and speading of the values of non-violence, cooperation, tolerance, and respect, not only among pupils and teaching staff but also beyond, into families and the wider community.

Education has a unique potential to create an environment where attitudes that tolerate violence can be changed and where non-violent behavior can be learned. From an early age, schools and teachers are well placed to break patterns of violence and provide skills in communication, negotiation, and support for peaceful solutions to conflict. Teachers are respected actors within communities and are empowered to pass on the message to parents and the wider community.

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The purchasing Committee

When toothbrushes are made for elephant jaws

We have been running a pre-primary education program for five years now, and since last year we have added a community class program to our portfolio of educational projects. In total, we have equipped around 100 classrooms with educational, recreational and hygiene materials.

Feedback from the teachers on the material used is essential.

At the beginning of each school year, we adjust and replace deteriorated and unusable material, and renew the children’s personal hygiene kits. The teachers inform the project coordinators of their observations on the material used during the school year. Some imported games, toys and stationery sometimes do not meet the expected quality standards: glue or pens that dry out too quickly, pencils that are too brittle, solid modelling clay, toys that do not survive a few days of use are all comments that alert us. 

Feedback from teachers about the inappropriate size of toothbrushes, pointing out that they were made for “elephant jaws”, also strongly challenged the way we shop, no longer content to blindly follow material lists from consortia involved in the distribution of educational programs.

Shopping tests worthy of the largest consumer organizations

Nai Qala’s hallmark is to promote quality educational programs with low-cost local solutions, which may not be realistic combined with products from well-known international brands. In order to ensure that it has the right equipment at the right price, Nai Qala has set up a system for testing equipment to complement its purchasing policy, which requires a comparison of prices from at least three suppliers. This spring, in preparation for the start of the new school year, the Nai Qala office team formally tested dozens of pens, pencils, erasers, glues and other items; putting them through durability and strength tests, checking the contents of the reservoirs: how many hours of writing does a pen do? How many shocks can a pencil survive? Is the glue pot filled to the top? Each model was evaluated according to objective criteria and only the best was retained.

As regards the size of the toothbrushes, the purchasing manager was responsible for researching the market and having colleagues test suitable models. After several days of testing, the model that will appear in the classrooms was selected: a simple, solid toothbrush that will reach every corner of a 6-year-old’s mouth.

Almost everything is available in the markets of Afghanistan’s capital, but not always to international quality standards: a well-informed consumer is better prepared. The young beneficiaries of Nai Qala’s educational programs will be able to count on material adapted to their use.

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Inauguration of a school in Dou Aab

A 12th school for remote rural communities

When we first visited the village of Dou Aab in 2016, we were struck by the learning conditions of the students and the extreme deprivation of the area. Dou Aab School, a primary school for children up to 9th grade, girls and boys ages 7-16, had no solid building. Classes were held in the open air, sometimes under torn tents, and could not be held in bad weather. The students were mostly sitting on the ground, under the sun or sometimes in the snow, as is often the case in the projects for which Nai Qala is committed. Not surprisingly, these poor conditions made it very difficult to complete the annual school program and resulted in a high dropout rate. 

Although, since our first visit to the village, an organization has provided temporary plastic structures, the teachers’ lack of motivation and the parents’ disinterest in education unfortunately remains a reality. The absence of a proper building is interpreted by the population as an abandonment by the state and the international community, leading them to seek economic opportunities outside the village. 

In its mission to provide dignified learning conditions for children in the disadvantaged rural areas of central Afghanistan, Nai Qala Association embarked on the construction of its 12th school building. The Association ensured the selection of the land for the future construction in consultation with the village council of elders, the transfer of ownership, the tendering of the construction to local companies and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education ensuring the inclusion of the school in its portfolio. 

Construction began in May 2022 and, with good weather, was completed in October 2022. The building’s walls are constructed with stones from the surrounding mountains; the sand and gravel used for the masonry comes from nearby rivers. The construction company hired men from the village, providing dozens of families with a welcome income in a region where economic opportunities are scarce.

Located at the foot of the mountain, the building is visible from afar: it is a school with 6 classrooms, 1 room for the teachers, 1 multi-purpose room serving as a library and computer room, all equipped with the necessary furniture. The building is completed by a sanitary block with access to running water, an outdoor sports field for volleyball, and a perimeter wall.

A joyful ceremony involving the school children, villagers and local authorities concluded the project. The young pupils from 5 classes of the Nai Qala pre-school program joined the celebration and got to know the school that will welcome them in the spring. The inauguration of the new building was the occasion to officially hand over the keys of the school to the principal and the community to the delight of the 540 current beneficiaries and the future generations of schoolchildren of Dou Aab.

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When children cannot go to school, education comes to them

Community based education (CBE) enables school-age children to get an education, even when schools are difficult to reach.

Millions of children are out of school in Afghanistan; many live in hard-to-reach areas where there are no formal schools, or where the nearest school is not within walking distance. Completing primary school is a challenge, especially in rural areas and for girls, despite some recent progress in raising enrolment. Shortage of schools and absence of transportation are the main obstacles to education. Geographical barriers, especially in mountainous areas, make it hard for children to reach the classroom: a long walk to school means fewer children go.

For children of primary school age, grades 1-6 from remote areas the Ministry of Education has established alternative teaching in community buildings or private homes, with a teacher from the local community. Community education has a long history in Afghanistan, dating back to the government-supported ‘village schools’ of the 1970s, when villages were too scattered, or the population was below the threshold for primary schooling. Today, although most of these community classes are supported by NGOs, the Ministry of Education is committed to supporting such non-formal education and officially recognizes community classes as an outreach provision within the national education system.

In Afghanistan, CBE has proved to be a successful approach to reach out-of-school children, particularly girls.

Education with a minimal and flexible infrastructure

Villagers provide a classroom space, a large room in a private house, a community building, or a mosque, and nominate potential teachers from the community. Aid organizations train the teachers, pay their salaries, and provide government-approved textbooks and stationery. The government integrates the community classes into the wider education system and certifies the teachers. Each community-based center serves the village in which it is located; community-based education is spread over several sites, making attendance more convenient for children living in remote areas.

Such community-based programs are quick and relatively cheap to set up: no need for complex infrastructure, teachers belong to the community. When accessing primary school is a challenge, children have a chance to get basic education and an opportunity to join formal schools when they are older and safe enough to walk. CBE gives communities an opportunity to develop a sense of ownership. Parents are strong partners, they can visit classes regularly, checking attendance and observing lessons.  

Nai Qala Association closes education gaps in remote communities

Through the implementation of school constructions and the  running of preschool programs in underserved areas of mountainous regions of central Afghanistan,  Nai Qala Association was able to observe the lack of formal school facilities and the high proportion of out-of-school children. When monitoring the preschool program in place, Nai Qala Association’s staff discovered that in some villages children were simply not enrolled in primary school. Indeed, distances to schools can be long and prevent the youngest children and/or girls to attend a formal class. As children grow older and might be physically able to join a school, they are then too old to be enrolled in the formal education system.

Nai Qala Association’s vision is to provide a complete package of education in remote rural regions, from pre-primary age up to access to higher education with a preschool program, construction of school buildings, and tutoring classes. Since September 2022, in order to fill in the gaps, the Association has been piloting a CBE project in 10 villages as a follow up to its preschool program,. The classes are located in the provinces of Bamyan, Daikundi and Ghazni, in remote villages where the association runs a preschool, to ensure that all children realize their right to education.

After hiring teachers who have the required qualifying criteria set by the government, Nai Qala Association has provided training for 8 women and 2 men, with the support of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). After the training, the teachers returned to their villages and oversee about 30 children, aged 7 to 8 (sometimes up to 13) for an intense school year. Nai Qala, with the in kind support of AKDN, has provided each community with a black board, carpet, stationery, note- and textbooks so that everyone is equipped to follow the class. Additionally, Nai Qala employees ensure a follow up with each class, making good use of the preschool team in place.

A first monitoring visit in the province of Ghazni has confirmed that the need for these classes is huge. Indeed, on the day the project started over 80 girls were waiting to be enrolled but as the organization’s capacities are limited to 35 pupils, more than 45 girls were left crying, disappointed and with a feeling of exclusion, and with fathers also expressing their sadness. These remote villages never benefited from external support; education for girls is missing; child and mother mortality is high…

Community based education opens horizons, hearts, and minds to learning under the most challenging conditions. This year, over 300 children are benefiting from Nai Qala Association’s community-based education project.

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Relativity of time

The relativity of time from the perspective of remote communities living in the mountainous regions of central Afghanistan

What is time? In western and westernized societies, time is measured by a clock. From early youth to old age, our agendas are filled with time-related commitments and appointments; daily life is governed by attendance required for school, study or work, sports, artistic activities, leisure, social events. Days, months, or years cannot be thought of without a very clear definition of time.

In the mountainous regions of central Afghanistan, time is a different reality. The rhythm of the sun, the cycles of the moon, the succession of seasons, the needs of the livestock or the fields, and the calls for prayer give the pace of life. But time becomes complex to manage when preschool arrives in these remote areas.

Preschool classes are held on weekdays with regular timing. Children are expected to arrive a few minutes before class starts. Teachers are always present at least 30 minutes before the start of the lesson, making sure that everything is ready to welcome their young students. However, the teacher is often surprised to see children waiting outside the door long before she arrives for class. Similarly, it is not uncommon for children to join the class just as it is about to end or to fall asleep during a lesson.

Changing from sophisticated to handmade dial clocks

Classrooms are generally equipped with dial clocks; they usually hang at the top of the wall, just below the ceiling as an untouchable ornament for children. These clocks help teachers organize their teaching day since their own watches are mostly used as  fashion  accessories as they do not have batteries that work. The dial clock also serves as a support for children to learn to tell time, which they do carefully: they can accurately say, “It’s half past nine,” “It’s a quarter to three,” but when asked what time they are supposed to get ready for school, they usually reply, “When the sun comes up”; there is no connection to the clock.

When assessing what equipment was most and least useful in the classroom, the preschool coordinators unanimously answered the dial clock. 

The preschool classrooms that have recently opened no longer have battery-operated dial clocks, but instead decorative cardboard clocks made by the teachers. The children can touch them and play with them, without fear of breaking them. Telling the time is taught in a more practical way, by linking time to daily life activities. Children sing a rhyme that describes the different moments of their daily routine and which they can link with time: “I wake up, I wash my face and ask my mom for tea and after I get ready and walk to class…” Teachers give life and meaning to time by linking the clock and mealtimes so that children are able to ask their busy parents for food. Children are more aware of the clock in their daily routines. In other words, teachers give “life” and meaning to time.

The children and the preschool teachers tell the parents their schedule for preschool, or at what time the children need to wake up or get ready for school. Most parents own a cellphone with a clock and their children teach them to use the time correctly. Moreover, they no longer wake their children hours before leaving for school, children no longer fall asleep during preschool and are ready for the start of class. Children kindly remind their mothers it is time to get food so that parents who are always busy do not forget to feed them as is often the case. 

The installation of cardboard clocks in the classes has exceeded all expectations in bringing  a healthy routine to their lives. 

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Stability in Turmoil

While the news from Afghanistan was rather alarming from a Western perspective, Nai Qala continued to operate on the ground almost as a matter of routine. 

After almost four months of political change and the departure of the international community, what are the impacts for Nai Qala?

Construction of school buildings

On the eve of the fall of the ruling government in Kabul, Nai Qala quietly marked the completion of the girls’ school that the association had started in September of the previous year.  The small completion ceremony took place in the presence of the local authorities and the future beneficiaries who were at that time on forced vacation due to the … pandemic. 

After a few weeks of hesitation, the girls were allowed to settle in as the provincial authorities lifted the ban on the older girls from studying. Nai Qala took advantage of the closure of the schools to carry out renovations on the old village school to prevent water infiltration due to the harsh winter conditions prevailing in the region. The new school and the older renovated  one were inaugurated in mid-November before an audience of hundreds of girls, local community representatives and the new provincial authorities. The keys to the new building were officially handed over to the community. 

What about the pre-school program?

Nai Qala runs a pre-school education program in the provinces of Bamyan and Daikundi. The children, the 65 teachers, support staff and local communities have again had more difficulty dealing with temporary class closures imposed by the government due to Covid than with the political change. The mountainous regions of central Afghanistan where Nai Qala operates have been largely ignored by successive governments in Kabul over the past 20 years; the rural population suffering from extreme poverty do not feel concerned by politics: their priority has always been to feed their families. Of course, some female teachers have questioned whether their work will continue under the new regime. No formal ban on working was issued to them and they were able to continue teaching to the great joy of their young students. Like all projects initiated by Nai Qala, the pre-school education program is defined, implemented, and activated in collaboration with the local communities who take ownership of it.

What about the new authorities?

Nai Qala has always engaged in discussions with the existing authorities. All projects are routinely approved by the Ministry of Education and the new regime is no exception. Nai Qala even had the opportunity of receiving one of the very first MOUs signed by the Minister of Education. The provincial authorities of Bamyan and Daikundi are giving positive signals for the continuation of educational activities for all, for example by allowing girls and boys to study, regardless of their age.

Looking confidently to the future

From the beginning, Nai Qala developed an approach based on community involvement. Local authorities and the population are always included in the project development, which encourages them to feel recognized, respected and involved. The pride of the population to participate in the elaboration and implementation of the projects explains why the dozen schools and the dispensary that we built are still functioning and are maintained in good conditions. The local authorities and the population have taken ownership of the projects and are protecting what Nai Qala has achieved and built with donor support. The local people will continue to protect the buildings and projects in this new phase as well. Although extremely poor and often illiterate, these communities are deeply committed to the education of their daughters and sons. 

Following political changes, a small period of observation is always necessary, but nothing will change the position of the communities involved in the Association’s projects. The Association stays the course and continues its activities with the underprivileged populations. We do not intend to stop on the success of the last constructions: we have recently committed to building a new school in an even more remote village, in the district of Yakawlang. Construction is expected to start at the end of the winter when the weather will be milder. As far as pre-school education is concerned, we are about to start the winter vacation period. Before classes resume in the spring, the 65 preschool teachers and some of their primary school colleagues will take part in a pedagogical seminar organized to strengthen their skills.

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Special guests in the field

For the first time in Nai Qala’s history, a donor visits one of our projects.

Since 2007, Nai Qala has been implementing projects in remote areas of central Afghanistan. Since our very first project, the construction of a school in the village of Nai Qala, hundreds of donors, big and small, have made donations to support our work and make a difference in neglected communities. Without their generous contributions this  would not have been possible, but none of them have ever visited any of our many projects. In June 2021, for the first time, one of our strongest partners, the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC), came to visit some of our projects in remote regions of central Afghanistan.

A donor ready to go to the field

Switzerland is committed to improving access to quality basic education for all in Afghanistan and is Nai Qala’s main partner for its pre-school project; this program helps prepare children for elementary school, thus greatly increasing their chances of success and reducing the risk of dropping out. For just over a year the Swiss Development and  Cooperation Agency has been supporting our pre-school education project in Daikundi province and some of the most remote areas of Bamyan province, where many boys and girlsare not in school.  

In early 2021, Nai Qala made a presentation to SDC regarding the projects they support. SDC were impressed by the impact and importance of their support to children,  parents and rural communities. They expressed their deep desire and interest in carrying out a field visit and seeing the results of the Nai Qala association’s projects with their own eyes. Honored by the trust and commitment of its partners, Nai Qala accepted the challenge and organized a visit to the project for 3 members of the SDC team in Kabul.

Visit to pre-school classes in Bamyan province

At the end of June, Nai Qala took the SDC team to visit villages in Yakawlang district where the project is implemented. The main objective of the visit was to follow up on the pre-school project in Bamyan province. The delegation visited two classes and met with teachers and parents. They had the opportunity to see the changes brought about by the preschool program both in the children and in the communities. Indeed, all were very impressed:

“When we visited the pre-primary classes run by the Nai Qala Association […] we were impressed to see the social skills the children had developed. One proud father told us that his daughter was doing better than her older brother, who is already in primary school. All of the parents told us that their children are more focused, more respectful of their elders, and have better personal hygiene and table manners since they started attending the classes. This gives them a much better chance of succeeding in school, and coming from communities that are often neglected, these children need every advantage they can get.”

A sense of pride

The presence of the SDC delegation made the communities proud, as few outsiders take the time and risk to visit their homes. They would never have imagined that they would have such quality guests, who took an interest in the education of their children. People need inspiration and this visit helped these communities find it.

Equally important, the SDC team also made Nai Qala proud, as this field visit was not only to examine where and how Swiss funding is being spent, but also to see the conditions under which the Nai Qala Association works and the level of commitment required to ensure that we reach every child to provide them with a basic education. This experience will remain an important source of inspiration and motivation. It gave us a real boost of confidence.

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Expansion of our activities to the province of Daikundi

The expansion of our preschool program took us in to a third and fastmoving province

In 2017 Nai Qala began its preschool program in Ghazni province and following its success Nai Qala went on to expand firstly into Bamyan province in 2019, then in the spring of 2021 into the province of Daikundi. All together Nai Qala is currently running 65 preschool classes in 3 provinces. 

A young population looking for development opportunities 

Daikundi is a new province, created from the northern districts of Oruzgan province that were originally part of the Hazara ethnic region. The Province of Daikundi is surrounded, in the East, by the Provinces of Bamyan and Ghazni, where we already operate.

Daikundi, as a region, has historically suffered deep poverty resulting from an extremely tough geography and unforgiving mountainous region, that kept its people isolated and excluded from most development initiatives. The harshness of the region has created a strong social cohesion among its inhabitants which has made Daikundi one of the most stable provinces in Afghanistan.

A socio-economic survey revealed that half of the population of the province is aged 15 years or younger with the youth aged 15-24 years comprising 20.6 percent of the province’s population, implying therein a very young age structure. This supports the fact that the total fertility rate recorded in the province is high at more than 7 children per woman.

The main sources of income in Daikundi are farming and foreign labor, mainly in Iran. The cultivation of almond trees has recently come to represent a new hope, bringing some income, as the leading cash crop, and providing people with an improved horizon and some prospects for the future.

The central part of the province and the area surrounding the provincial capital, Nili, is home to many internally displaced people who have left a harsh life in the mountains where the land is barren and inaccessible, often with a persistent lack of water, in search of opportunity and a better life. In addition to these internally displaced people, many returnees from abroad are now settling and starting their lives anew in the region. 

Our Preschool program will address the need of this new rising population 

In the spring of this year, we opened 20 preschool classes in the surroundings of Nili. Our young beneficiaries are mostly from internally displaced families and are living below the poverty line. One of our classes is located in a community composed mainly of former refugees who have returned from abroad. The inclusion of refugee children in a preschool program is very important to the Nai Qala Association. Indeed, the life of a refugee is hard, they are constantly excluded, but their return home is also difficult, as resettlement may not be in the hometown, and life must start again from scratch. 

Our preschool classes also welcome a large number of orphaned children. Since Daikundi is a very poor province and very little attention has been paid to development, a remarkable number of men have left in search of work. Driven by poverty, many of them were recruited into the army and fought on the frontline but few returned home. Fatherless children often suffer exclusion and, in most cases, are even abandoned by their mothers when they remarry.

The preschool program in the province of Daikundi targets a new rising population within a dynamic and fastmoving society. People have just settled or are settling in the region of Nili, which makes our investment likely to be sustainable on the longer term. We believe that we can give hope to children and their families through a preschool program. We also have to keep in mind, Daikundi is not a prosperous province with many opportunities and developments. As many communities in Afghanistan, those in Daikundi are going through a tough path. We are especially proud to provide a chance to give a hopeful future for their children. 

We were very pleased to inaugurate our preschool education project in Daikundi and to start investing in its children’s future. We look forward to accompanying this brave community, drawing inspiration from them and together implementing important initiatives to contribute to change in this society.

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The impact of preschool on hygiene in the family

Every year, the death of thousands of children  in Afghanistan could be prevented by using toilets and washing hands. This is why several NGOs are spending millions of dollars to provide latrines throughout the country.

Some villages in the areas where we run our education projects have been equipped with brand new toilets, but these have shockingly been left  unused. People are accustomed to going to the toilet in the open air, although they are likely to fall ill from hygiene-related diseases and are at risk of being attacked by animals, especially at night. Toilet culture has not yet reached the stage of becoming a habit, but this is changing.

Thanks to our preschool program and our very young ambassadors, these toilets are now being used! Marzya, mother of Maria, 5 years old, says “My daughter, since she has been attending pre-school, insists on using the toilet and makes comments about her parents, about how indecent it can be to go outside to go to the toilet next to the house. She has put us all under moral pressure, including our neighbours… so we cannot imagine our life without a latrine“. Aqella, another mother, comments: “Fatima, 6 years old, is one of my 6 children. She uses the latrine and considers that going to the toilet is part of her dignity. She also puts pressure on the whole family! Now the toilet is part of our habits and we are even embarrassed to see how much we have relieved ourselves just by sitting outside our house.”

Nai Qala’s preschool program teaches basic hygiene rules such as hand washing, tooth brushing and the use of sanitary facilities. Thanks to these simple habits, dignity is restored as the whole family can use the toilet and no longer has to squat outside.

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Learning to play with toys

Playing with toys is a new experience for preschool teachers from remote communities.

Nai Qala’s preschool program is designed to provide young children with a range of experiences that help them develop skills and attitudes that will enable them to make good use of lifelong learning opportunities, which is why play is an important component of the curriculum. However, playing with toys is not part of the culture and is not always understood in isolated communities.

Teachers felt uncomfortable playing with toys.

Women teachers from the Yakawlang district who have been teaching a preschool class for a year participated in a three-day refresher course organized by Nai Qala association; it was an opportunity to exchange experiences and deepen their knowledge about early childhood and education. For the Nai Qala team, such a workshop is also an opportunity to gather feedback from teachers on the past school year and to get ideas to improve the training of future teachers. 

A big lesson learned from the three days is that play and toys can represent abstract concepts that are sometimes difficult to grasp. We took it for granted that playing with construction toys develops the imagination and allows children to inspire each other, but this was not the case for teachers who never had the opportunity to play with “western” toys in their own childhood. Indeed, construction toys bewildered many teachers who felt lost and confused, so in some kindergarten classes, Lego bricks and wooden blocks were left out.

Experimenting to understand the role of toys

A few days later, Nai Qala trained 33 young women in preschool education. After learning about the theory of the role of play in children’s development, the future teachers were given the opportunity to experiment with some construction toys and to play by themselves. It was very touching to see these young women playing with bricks and blocks. At first puzzled and wondering about the meaning and use of the different shapes, they used their imagination, became enthusiastic and let their creativity express itself to such an extent that the trainers lost a bit of control of the class. 

“I always thought toys were just for kids’ fun. Something not very important and serious. But I found out during the teacher training that the play session was one of the most important ones in the course. Wooden blocks were available and we had to build something. It took us an hour to think, discuss and imagine a construction with meaning. Then I realized that the blocks are much more than just pieces of wood, there is something deeper.”
A NQA children’s school teacher in Bamyan province.

Very proud of their own achievements, the trainees understood the importance of using these toys for children. Fun, excitement, joy, concentration, initiative, coordination, curiosity, creativity, inspiration, collaboration, perseverance are all words inspired by their play time.