The following is a guest post by Sharif Fayez, Afghanistan’s minister of higher education from 2002-2004 and the founder of the American University of Afghanistan.
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In December 2001, Afghan leaders gathered in Bonn, Germany, to set the framework for establishing the post-Taliban Afghanistan. On December 5, a decade later, a second meeting was held in Bonn to ensure the gains made in the last 10 years will be maintained. While the focus was on strengthening security and governance–a daunting task at a time of great uncertainty in my country–as well as maintaining international support, I urge donor nations not to overlook an equally important element of building a stable, democratic Afghanistan: education.
Afghanistan’s development simply cannot be assured without offering its next generation of leaders greater access to education: young Afghans must study the skills necessary to continue rebuilding their country. Despite 10 years of foreign involvement, less than two-thirds of students have access to k-12 schooling. The students who do reach university are forced into ineffective, overcrowded public institutions or for-profit diploma mills. The youth are eager to learn–and Afghanistan can take two steps to help them succeed.
The first step is a reform in how education is administered. Education must be freed from the grip of powerful personalities whose top priority is demonstrating their loyalty to the ruling elite. With prestigious public university jobs often handed out as political patronage to those who want the title and not the work, students are left with incoherent academic policies and outdated curricula.
Closely linked to this is rearranging who benefits from universities’ achievements and innovations. The German and Russian trained faculty members of Kabul Polytechnic, for example, are some of the best engineers in central Asia. Yet any financial benefits from their innovations are sent to the central government, discouraging further research.
The same goes for Kabul University’s School of Agriculture: despite pioneering new farming methods in a country where 80 percent of the economy is based around agriculture, the university and its faculty receive no financial rewards. Indeed, some professors at these two flagship schools–who hold Ph.D.’s–work as assistants and drivers for foreign NGOs in the evenings to make ends meet.
The second area of focus after reform is money. With all of the attention on the military side of rebuilding Afghanistan, financial support for education has been passed over. Last year, just $30-million was allocated for the 21 public institutions that comprise higher education in Afghanistan and are tasked with educating 100,000 students. By contrast, the University of California at Berkeley alone has a budget of $1.8-billion a year to educate 30,000 students. The Afghan Constitution guarantees a free “balanced and universal education” for all citizens, meaning that these limited funds went mainly to covering student housing and food – not meeting the dire need for modern academic programs.
Perhaps predictably, the private sector has leapt in to the fill the void. More than 50 for profit institutes now operate in Kabul alone. While a handful have good intentions, the vast majority teach unregulated curricula. Some Pakistani-backed colleges teach radical agendas that actively promote violence against the Karzai government. Many others are simply cashing in on students, selling them diplomas without making them work. Almost none of these institutes are on a mission to produce graduates dedicated to rebuilding and contributing to their country, and most break down along tribal lines, enhancing rather than diminishing sectarian identities.
Without an emphasis on education, the enhanced governance and security that the Bonn Conference and international donors seeks will remain elusive. Educated Afghans who can critically assess issues are central to setting the laws and establishing the institutions that will propel Afghanistan forward.
More than 900 NATO service members and 1,600 Americans and have died alongside tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and civilians in the interest of bringing democracy to Afghanistan. Without an educational system capable of producing competent leaders, these sacrifices will be for naught. Democracy needs education, and the world needs a democratic Afghanistan.
