Today, education is increasingly being perceived, and rightfully so, as an essential factor in promoting economic development and reducing poverty. Beyond this, it is the natural incubator and safeguard of contemporary citizenship and democratic values. One of the most important factors that influence a country's ability to become economically competitive, is the quality of human resources produced by its education and training.

“At the dawn of a new century the prospect of which evokes both anguish and hope, it is essential that all people with a sense of responsibility turn their attention to both the aims and the means of education. While education is an ongoing process of improving knowledge and skills, it is also perhaps primarily an exceptional means of bringing about personal development and building relationships among individuals, groups and nations.” 'Learning: The Treasure Within', Jacques Delors.

Education begins with the inborn qualities of each child: boundless curiosity, a profound interest in meaningful activity, self-expression, courage, laughter, and love. Education prizes these qualities. A rich and balanced curriculum offers many opportunities for the students' qualities to take shape, grow, and help them to make their connection to the wider world.  The most important feature of today's basic education is to contribute to the economic and social growth of societies by implementing a model of sustainable development based on the specific characteristics of each country. Therefore, adopting flexible systems in the developing countries would allow greater curricular diversity and builds bridges between traditional and modern education, which is vital.  In Afghanistan, where decades of religious conservatism have left a mark on the society, any reform in the educational system must be introduced with a proper understanding of the sociopolitical, cultural, and religious context of the Afghan society.

Overview:

The contemporary educational system in Afghanistan was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century by the government, which used it as a means to convince traditionalists, who were in favor of religious schools (madarasas), of the compatibility of Islam with modernization. In 1935, the Afghan government declared education universal, compulsory and free. By the 1960s, considerable attention was paid to extending secular elementary schools, and vocational schools to the rural areas.  Nevertheless, because of the economic and social barriers, contemporary education remained primarily the privilege of upper class urban groups. By the 1960s as the expanding government system required more bureaucrats, ninety percent of all school graduates were employed by the government with the result that the educated were seen by villagers as government officials.  Graduates of religious schools (Madrassa) sought careers as religious functionaries or judges.  Toward the end of the constitutional period, as the rural population became increasingly aware of  the concentration of modern facilities and industries in Kabul and a few other cities, signs of resentment assumed political importance. The experiment in democracy had brought few benefits to most Afghans while economic opportunities and profits from corruption appeared to be monopolized by the elite. Embitterment changed many students and graduates into recruits for radical and protest movements. Marxist critiques of the constitutional experiment quickly appeared and led to the 1973 coup, a prelude to the 1978 Soviet-backed coup and subsequently the1979 Soviet invasion.

In 1978, the Soviet-dominated regime in Afghanistan launched a literacy campaign targeting mainly children and teenagers. From the beginning, the campaign, that was part of the communist political agenda, caused a significant backlash against education, particularly in rural areas, and led to distrust and widespread rejection of educational initiatives undertaken by the government.  Afghans residing outside the control of the Kabul government or in refugee camps viewed secular education as a foreign object that contradicted Islamic values.  This perception mellowed over the years as many refugees observed the benefits of education, but the curricula developed for refugee children was highly politicized and filled with war messages.

After ten years of war, the Soviets were defeated and left Afghanistan, but the continuing conflict and individual struggles for power between self-appointed leaders of the Mojahideen faction from 1922-1966 led to the empowerment of the Taliban regime (1996-2001). Moreover, the Taliban's prohibition of schooling for girls and of employment for women as teachers resulted in a dramatic decline in education for girls as well as boys, and created a backlash amongst many sectors with the Afghan society. Afghanistan in 1996 had the highest illiteracy rate in Asia, for both men and women.

Recent events have brought about sweeping changes and daunting challenges in Afghanistan. Years of war have destroyed Afghanistan's educational infrastructure. The educational system is now in shambles, and incapable of meeting the nation's basic educational needs. In addition, almost two generations of Afghans opted for war instead of education. Thus, those who should be most productive today are emotionally and mentally unprepared and highly vulnerable to the temptations of anti-social activities.  Although Afghans need the international communities' assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan, solutions lie in the patient rebuilding of confidence and trust within the Afghan communities.

Needs:

An entire generation of Afghan children has been denied basic education. Because of years of occupation, civil wars, and misguided policies, there are few functional schools left standing.  Approximately 60% of primary schools are currently considered “shelterless”. Due to the lack of schools, internal unrest, poverty, and disparities in access to whatever forms of education still existed; the vast majority of children are illiterate. Girls in particular have been drastically deprived and few are presently able to read and write. In general, Afghanistan's literacy rates are among the lowest in the world.

In sum, Afghanistan's children have paid an unprecedented price, and they are at grave risk of truly becoming a lost generation. Afghanistan's educational indicators remain amongst the lowest in the world. According to the World Fact Book 2000, a Country Study by the Federal Research Division of the US Library of Congress and a Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) conducted by a multi-donor mission co-led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority (AACA) published July of 2002, recent figures for Afghanistan's population of 25.8 million show the following:

• There are approximately 4.5 million primary school aged children in Afghanistan.

• 97% of primary school aged girls and 61 percent of primary school aged boys do not attend school.

• Over 92% of girls and 76 percent of boys below the age of 15 cannot read or write.
• More than 2000 schools (84% of boys schools and 72% of girls schools) have been destroyed.

• Current student teacher ratio is 200 to 1

• The educational curriculum has not been revised for 30 years, and virtually no modern educational practices have been introduced for decades.

•An estimated one-third of the total Afghan children in primary school attend (NGO)-run schools