Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ministry of Education

1
Islamic Republic of AfghanistanMinistry of
Education
Planning Capacity as a Precondition for Peace
Building Challenges and Solutions from the
Perspective of Afghanistans Ministry of
Education Abdul Wassay Arian General Director
Planning and Evaluation 14 March 2011
2
Overview of Presentation

• Background on Education In Afghanistan
• Current Situation
• Education Gains Peace building and more
• Capacity Building Challenges and Solutions
• Sustaining Education Gains

3
Where we were in 2001

• Less than a million boys were enrolled in 3,400
  schools, taught by 20 thousand teachers. Girls
  were abandoned.
• Most schools without adequate building and
  facilities.
• Multiple outdated curriculums
• Only 1,500 male students were attending semi-
  functional TVET schools
• 22 thousand adults were enrolled in 2,000
  literacy classes.
• Weak administration system and no forecast for
  funding and development of education

4
Where we are now

• Access to Education
• Student enrollment has increased eight fold (38
  female)
• Over 12,500 general and Islamic schools
  operational in all parts of the country
• Around 180,000 teachers (30 female) deployed to
  schools
• Over 6,000 schools constructed
• 550,000 adults learn literacy and life skills in
  over 22,000 courses
• 29,000 youth being trained in 62 technical and
  vocational education schools and institutes

5
Where we are now

• Education System Development and Governance
• Policy Reform Education law
• Public Administrative Reform and Restructuring,
  New Pay Grade system
• Afghanistan Financial Management Information
  System
• Institutionalized strategic and operational
  planning
• Endorsement of Afghanistan Education Interim Plan
  in 2011 (EFA-FTI)
• Education Management Information System,
  monitoring education indicators

6
Where We Are Now

• Quality of Education
• New curriculum for general and Islamic education
• Teacher education colleges and programmes
• colleges increased from 4 (2001) to 42 (2011)
• new teacher training support centers established
  in 79 districts
• short term teacher training for 100,000 teachers
• 32,000 students are enrolled for 2-year diploma
  course

7
Other Education Gains

• Promotion of human rights and democracy
• Peace building
• Poverty reduction
• State-building
• Nation-building
• Building the foundation for sustainable
  socio-economic development

8
Challenges to capacity building

• Starting from a very low base
• Steady and high increase in students enrolment in
  schools
• Low investment in higher education
• Difficulty to attract and retain qualified staff
  within public sector competing private sector
  and international organizations
• Short-term ah hoc training programs
• curriculum, teacher education, policy, planning
  and management require long-term investment
• Lack of medium- and long-term funding
• Insecurity in some parts of the country
• OECD, FTI flexibility and responsiveness

9
Innovative solutions for capacity development

• Strategic sector-wide approach to capacity
  development
• System building strategy
• HR development strategy
• Effective service delivery strategy
• Expansion of capacity development activities to
  provincial, district and school levels
• Learning by doing approach to capacity
  development
• Alignment of all capacity development programmes
  with MoE priorities
• Long-term and sustainable capacity development
  partnerships with national and international
  partners
• Community involvement and enhancement of private
  sector role in development of education

10
Sustaining Education Gains

• Enhance overall understanding of education sector
  
• Strengthen policy and system development
• Continue and improve ongoing technical support
  programs
• National technical assistants
• Scale up CD at sub-national level
• Institutionalize capacity development
• Alignment and harmonization of donors/partners
  support to MoE plans on budget and on plan
  financial and technical assistance
• Financing education 3.25 billion US (1.42
  billion development budget and 1.83 billion
  operating budget over the next 3 years)
• Use monitoring as way to ensure effective service
  delivery
• Lobbying and advocacy for education (increase
  reporting on education gains and good practices)
• Continue support to security / enabling
  environment for education

11

• Thank you