Tag Archives: education

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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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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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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. 

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School closure in times of pandemic

Most children have received no schooling for at least 9 months.

On their last day of school before the winter holidays in November 2019, no Afghan child could have imagined that schools would not resume the following spring. That’s why, in March, when the country’s health and education ministries announced the closure of all schools, children understood that the current winter holiday would be extended indefinitely to contain the outbreak of coronavirus.

The Ministry of Education quickly put in place an emergency response plan for the Covid-19 pandemic to continue the delivery of education services to students in their homes. This plan focused on distance education using television, radio or the web, and on small group teaching for students.

COVID-19 severely affected an already fragile culture of education in Afghanistan, especially in rural areas

Schools in Afghanistan were in crisis before the pandemic, but the situation has worsened, even more so in rural areas. With 55% of the population living below the poverty line, many families simply cannot afford to have access to the internet. Only 14% of Afghans use the internet and there is a wide disparity between urban and rural areas.  In addition, the availability of electricity has a significant impact on the population’s access to television and radio. In the remote rural areas where Nai Qala operates, a very small part of the population has a television powered by solar batteries. During the closure of schools, it was not unusual to see teenagers walking for several hours once a week to an urban center with good internet access to follow the government’s education program. Some highly motivated children, supported by their parents, moved to relatives in the cities to continue their education. Unfortunately, this was only the case for a minority. Most of the children had no opportunities for education during the closure of the school.

In rural areas, where only 13% of women and 45% of men are literate, many parents simply cannot help their children to study. For many parents, the closure of schools was seen as an economic boon. Parents who do not fully understand the role of education were rather satisfied to have their children at home and make more use of their children’s free time to help boost the family’s income, by making carpets or doing embroidery. During this period, the schoolchildren supported their parents more in household chores, in the fields or in animal husbandry.

The reopening of schools is encouraging

At the end of August, the government authorized the reopening of classes for 11th and 12th grade students. This was a relief and a great joy for the older teenagers, especially for the girls from Anda, who for the first time were able to take advantage of the facilities of the new school that Nai Qala built for them in 2019. In an already fragile environment where access to education was already a challenge, the pandemic could make the situation even worse, but having a decent educational environment with well-equipped school buildings is certainly an incentive to bring more children to school and retain them there.

Since the beginning of October, children of all ages have started going back to school. The schools built by Nai Qala have returned to full capacity and, as  a former preschooler with Nai Qala who has just started school in Sokhtagi says: “I am happy to be at school“.

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Opening up to the idea of pre-school education

Even those who are the most recalcitrant eventually end up supporting pre-school

Nai Qala Association started its pre-school program in the Nai Qala valley in 2017. The objective was to provide pre-school for all the children from the villages in the catchment area of the 3 schools that Nai Qala built there between 2007 and 2010.

Nai Qala’s employees were able to convince 9 villages to take part in the program, but there was one village that was not interested in pre-school. The villagers did not want to meet the Nai Qala team. They were not ready and did not understand the need for the program. When the local community refused to meet the team in 2017, of course it was extremely difficult to leave the village while knowing that many children were being left behind and missing out on such a program. This was a very sad moment… 

The Nai Qala pre-school program has been a success

Nai Qala Association successfully started its program in the other 9 villages and the parents and communities soon realized that this program was even better than they had imagined. Their children came home with many positive changes. They noticed how their children had improved social skills and had more of an awareness of their environment and their family; from greetings and politeness, to being able to identify basic reading and writing at a very young age. In addition, the children started to have more self-confidence and develop a sense of identity and pride that was hard to imagine before. Most importantly the community realized how the parents are involved in the education of their own children through parent-teacher meetings as an integral part of our pre-school program.

The community changed its mindset

It was not long before the recalcitrant village heard good things about the program and developed an understanding for what it was about. In particular they were convinced by the fact that parents were able to contribute by taking part in the parent-teacher meetings. The village started to regret their initial reluctance to open up to the idea of pre-school and felt left out. They observed and followed closely how the program was implemented elsewhere and then they held several meetings and organized classes themselves until eventually in the spring of 2019 they invited Nai Qala’s team members to the village and announced that they were now ready to set up a pre-school class. 

As part of our pre-school program, we hire a teacher directly from the community to teach the children, but in the case of this village it was difficult to find someone locally who was suitably qualified to be a teacher. We finally found a young lady who had only graduated from 8th grade but we decided to hire and train her, so she was capable of leading a class. 

Now in this village the parents are present at each parents’ evening and realize the importance of education. This story shows that the community itself once it was convinced by the program it welcomed it. This is the key to change! Any society will only develop when it  is itself convinced and ready. Then it will participate fully in the program which will be successfully sustained. Our pre-school program is community-based, and the active participation of the local community is crucial.

We are very proud to be part of such long-lasting change in those remote rural regions. It is thanks to the Nai Qala Association that that village and others like it opened up to the idea of education and its importance for their children’s future. 

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A new school for better opportunities

Nai Qala Association’s 11th school will improve learning conditions for 300 children.

On November 23rd, 2019 the keys of the school of Anda were officially handed over to the school principal. The objective of Nai Qala’s project has been fully achieved namely, to hand over to the community a new and properly equipped school that promotes access to quality education and improves learning opportunities for over 300 school-age girls and boys. 

The new school in the village of Anda will provide teachers and students with adequate facilities and equipment that create a working and recreational environment conducive to study and personal development of each child. 

A direct impact on the curriculum

In the mountainous regions of central Afghanistan, open-air schools are obliged to close early and for long periods due to heavy snow or rainfall, thus compromising the completion of the annual school program. In Afghanistan, school usually starts in April and ends in November but for many schools that do not have proper buildings the program can only starts  in May or sometimes even in June. The same happens at the end of the year, if winter comes earlier than usual, these schools may shut as early as October, making it very hard for teachers and students to complete the yearly curriculum. The new school in Anda is ready to be used by children who have been studying in the rain, snow, hot sun or in the wind, sitting on often damp ground. The new Anda building, with its 6 classrooms, will ensure that the annual education plan can be respected regardless of the weather.

A new pole of attraction

A school building represents a gateway to new opportunities for the community in Anda. With a proper construction, the community can more confidently ask the government and NGOs for educational support. A building acts as proof that material can be carefully kept and maintained. NGOs and the government are thus encouraged to bring more books, stationery, science materials or equipment. Our experience from other schools has also taught us that a new school is not only motivating for the children but also for the teachers, who in the absence of a proper school have high absenteeism and a tendency to leave their jobs. A well-established school is thus a motivation for governmental and non-governmental organizations to include it in their development programs and ensure teacher training and support.

Unexpected side effects of the construction

The school in Anda brought together a very traditional and divided community that has never been able to benefit from a concrete development project. For a year, Nai Qala actively engaged with them, empowered and encouraged them. For the first time, the community of Anda worked together on a common goal where everyone could benefit before, during and after the construction work. At the time of the inauguration, the keys of the building were handed over to the school principal in the presence of the community who created a steering committee for the protection and maintenance of the building. 

The sustainability of the school depends on the involvement of all the stakeholders, the regional authorities, the community, parents, teachers and students. Anda school is now an integral part of the national education plan and will benefit, in the future, from management within the framework of the standards defined by the Ministry of Education.