Support to the Education System of Afghanistan - Phase II

Afghanistan

The project built on the success of a previous similar intervention funded by OFID, through a grant of US$400,000 approved in April 2015. The construction of 4 schools accomplished over the duration of this project and made significant progress in improving the quality of education in the targeted five provinces of intervention (Kabul, Jalalabad, Charikar, Herat and Waras) in Afghanistan especially for girls. The project exceeded its original targets and directly benefited over 2100 teachers and 95,000 students every year in the five targeted provinces. Building on its core expertise, AFRANE has trained teachers with active pedagogy methods for Maths, Dari and Pachto subjects. In collaboration with the National Center of Sciences, hundreds of science teachers were also trained during this project. In both cases, teachers have significantly improved their pedagogical and academic skills. AFRANE has developed a new peace education curriculum at school level, aiming at tackling challenges such as violence, drop-outs and absenteeism. The project provided training sessions in Dari, Pashto, Mathematics and Sciences to school teachers. Seminars are followed by regular assessments of the teachers by AFRANE’s. During the project implementation, teachers were trained in one of the above-mentioned topics. In addition, 791 students participated in school art events promoting peace, some in collaboration with the afghan organization ArtLords. In total, 2108 teachers have benefited from AFRANE’s training. In Charikar (Parwan province), a school with 12 classrooms was constructed and was handed over to the Ministry of Education in October 2018 and the authorities expressed great satisfaction regarding the quality of the work. In Herat, the construction of Provincial Office of Education (a five classrooms building) was completed. In Waras district, the construction of Qol-e Batu is now completed. This was the most challenging activity for AFRANE as the school is located in a very isolated area that suffered from the recent droughts. However, the quality of the construction is high and the local authorities are very satisfied. In Waras, accomplished the construction of the agricultural high school's dormitory the 15th of September 2019 despite a small delay due to the drought and security issues on the road. Regarding school equipment, in addition to the 1216 student desks news or repaired since October 2017, equipped 2 computers rooms. 13 libraries equipped with computers to enable online research and better library management. Equipped libraries and laboratories’ schools with 29 tables, 260 chairs, 55 cupboards and more than 2500 laboratory materials. Since the beginning of the year 2019, schools have received 5734 books. AFRANE has focused its intervention on Teacher Training Centres (TTC) since the beginning of 2019. Four TTC have been equipped in lab material and furniture in order to enhance the training environment of new teachers. Overall, all the stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, directors and public authorities) have expressed great satisfaction towards AFRANE activities. The new buildings will change significantly the learning conditions of the students, who were often attending outdoor classes. The consistency of AFRANE program, equipping the schools and training the teachers at the same time helps to sustainably enhance the quality of education received by children.