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Enhancing Education
In 2000, only about 32 percent of school-age children were enrolled. An overwhelming 97 percent of the country's girls did not attend school. Eighty percent of existing schools were either severely damaged or destroyed at the end of Taliban rule.
USAID is working to bring Afghan children and teachers back to school with textbooks, school supplies, and training materials in hand. Pent-up demand for education is so great that more than two times the projected number of children showed up for school in March 2002. To meet this demand, 1,000 schools are being rebuilt or rehabilitated over the next three years.
USAID:
- Supported the 2002 Back-to-School campaign by printing 15 million textbooks for 2.9 million students, 30 percent of whom were girls.
- Trained 3,600 teachers.
- Produced and distributed 30,000 teacher instructional material kits.
- Provided a curriculum development workshop for the Ministry of Education, NGOs involved in the education sector, and critical donors.
- Established an accelerated learning program to address the problems of retention of over-aged students and lack of access for out-of-school youth.
- Provided food salary supplement to 55,000 teachers, valued at 26 percent of monthly income.
- Provides food rations as incentives for families to send their daughters to school.
- Built/reconstructed 113 primary and secondary schools and teacher training institutes.
- Will build or rehabilitate 1,000 more schools over the next three years.
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