Afghanistan

Schooling is not learning. Although access to schooling has improved significantly in the last decade, Afghan students are not learning. After spending 4 years in primary school, around 65% of Afghan students have only fully mastered Grade 1 Language curriculum and less than half of them mastered Grade 1 Mathematics curriculum. Data collected from the SABER SD survey show that Afghan students could correctly answer only 30% of the questions on the Language test, on average.

This study aims to present a comprehensive analysis of teacher management issues in Afghanistan, to inform the Ministry of Education’s formulation of a new teacher management policy, and to build consensus amongst education development partners on priorities for reform and assistance in the short (within the next 12 months) and medium (within the next 36 to 48 months) terms. This study uses a historical approach to teacher management issues (planning, HR, financial management), describing past developments to inform future priorities.

The past thirty years of conflict and political unrest in Afghanistan has decimated the country’s education system in terms of staffing, premises, curricula, and student attendance, for both male and female students. The education sector has been at the forefront of the political battles and conflicts between competing interest groups during the wars of resistance and ideological and ethnic conflicts that have plagued the country over the past few decades (Changing Profile of Education in Afghanistan, 2013).