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TUESDAY OCTOBER 14, 2014
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
AT News Report
KABUL: Afghanistan has made
remarkable achievements in adult
literacy training and dropping the
illiteracy rate in Afghanistan.
However, the progress made till
date is inadequate to meet the
growing literacy needs of this
country. Challenges still loom large
as it is not known yet that how
the country can reach 11.00 million adult illiterates. There is a
great variety in adult literacy in
terms of geographic and gender
distributions.
All key policy documents of
Afghanistan including the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) and the National
Education Strategy Plan (NESP)
have recognized literacy as a priority area and underscored the
need for pragmatic interventions.
As the government lead agency for
planning, designing, implementing
and coordinating all literacy initiatives of the country, the Deputy
Minister of Education for Literacy could not always fulfill its
mandates. The agency is increasingly feeling that it has to develop
more focused interventions and
strengthen its partnership with the
public and private literacy actors
working in the country.
Officials in the Ministry of
Education said that the ministry
lacks sufficient fund to build literacy methodology institute in
order to provide professional
training to teachers for literacy
programs.
Though, over 20 non-governmental organizations are helping
the Deputy Ministry of Education for Literacy (DMoEL) in
teachers’ capacity building, but
still the present capacity is insufficient and there is need for more
professional teachers who could
teach the literacy course efficiently.
Director of the Literacy Teacher Training Department (LTTD)
of the Deputy Minister of Education for Literacy, Dr. Hamida
Huma Nuristani, told Afghanistan
Times that present competence
for literacy trainers does not meet
the required necessities as the
training programs are for short
period.
“We have one week short
term training program, mid-term
program is for 10 days and longterm for 20 days. These literacy
teachers’ training courses cannot
meet the needs,” she said.
She said that establishment of
a teachers training institute is need
of the hour in order to make the
literacy programs more effective.
The short term courses designed
for the literacy teachers are not
yielding the desired results.
Dr. Nuristani said the LTTD
has drafted a special and methodology curriculum for the literacy
teachers training with support of
the partner NGOs.
“Number of teachers at the
moment is insufficient as we have
around 15,000 literacy facilitators
including 5,000 volunteers which
are not able to educate 64 percent
illiterate Afghans(11 million), she
said, adding, “Therefore, we need
more professional teachers. There
is one teacher for 25 to 30 trainees. There are only seven master
trainers for training of professional
teachers in 10 provinces which is
insufficient.”
She termed lack of professional trainers as one of the major challenges. Dr. Nuristani said the department lacks sufficient funds to
hire more trainers. The literacy
department needs Afs30 million
to increase the number of trainers
by three-fold as well as to enhance
quality of the literacy courses.
She added: “Annually
300,000 trainees were trained six
years ago through 20,000 literacy
courses. At least 4.5 million people were educated in last 12 years.
Those who completed the courses could get admission in class
ninth after receiving certificate.
The illiteracy rate came down to
64 percent while it was 78 percent after launching of the literacy programs across the country.
The international partners have
supported the department in recent years.”
She named the Afghan Natural Association for Adult Education (ANAFAE), DVV International United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United
Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (UNICEF),
World Food Program (WFP), National Foundation of UNESCO
Association in Japan (NFUAJ)
and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as major partners who have supported the literacy programs.
Dr. Nuristani added that
ANAFAE is one of the closest
partners of the department which
provided different necessary facilities in training of our master
trainers and junior trainers in 10
provinces.
She said that ANAFAE re-
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Behind Kabul Medical
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mained key partner in field of
teachers’ training, lobby and advocacy as it has provided financial support to organize media
meeting and trained 55 master
trainers in the capital. During 2014
four media meetings have been
conducted at national level and
nine media conferences at provincial level with technical support
of ANAFAE. Authorized representatives from video, audio and
printed media participated in
these meetings and conferences,
and different promotional materials were provided to the attendees. Electronic and print media is
committed to support literacy
programs continually. Also the
master trainers have the job to train
the literacy facilitators across the
country.
“The ANAFAE and DVV International as key supporters
since 2005 has helped the literacy
department to implement programs in 10 provinces, and developed the manual of the literacy
teacher training in last three years.
Also the ANAFAE has trained 55
master trainers since entering into
partnership.
The ANAFAE has provided
posters, brochures, spots, and
public awareness campaigns on
radio and television as well as facilitated distance learning programs.
Resource center, computer
center equipped with internet service, in addition to training of the
trainers in 40 literacy courses de-
signed to educate children, men
and women are the facilities provided by the ANAFAE. The
UNESCO is also a key partner of
the department which has educated 650,000 Afghans.
She termed establishing of the
TV channel of the MoE as vital
attempt for increasing literacy rate
in the country, and said this TV
channel broadcasts literacy methodology curriculum instruction
programs on daily basis in a bid
to reach public in remote areas of
the country.
“The literacy programs are
implemented in military field as
well apart from educating civilians.
At least 100,000 security personnel have been educated by the retired officers,” she mentioned.
MORE AND
MORE TOURISTS
FLOCKING BAMYAN
German news magazine Spiegel has reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel is considering extending the military
training mission in Afghanistan. The publication quoted members of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee.
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An article on the news outlet’s
website, Spiegel Online, said Sunday that the German military mission in Afghanistan, which currently sees Bundeswehr soldiers
training Afghan security and police forces until the end of 2015,
could be extended. Sources from
Berlin’s parliamentary committee
on foreign affairs said during the
last session that Merkel had expressed “concern” about the current state of the Afghan army and
police - in particular, against the
backdrop of what has happened
in the wake of the US withdrawal
from Iraq. “Security forces in Iraq
have no chance against the militants fighting for the Islamic
State,” Merkel was quoted as say-
ing in the closed doors meeting.
There are some 1599 Bundeswehr troops currently stationed in
Afghanistan as part of NATO’s
ISAF mission.
At the end of this year, the
German contingent is to be
halved, and the 800 soldiers taking part in NATO’s “follow up”
mission are to stay until the end
of 2015.
“We will have to consult once
more with the US,” Spiegel quoted Merkel, with regard to whether Washington would also consider extending its training mission
in Afghanistan past 2016. At
present, NATO has assessed the
operational readiness of the Afghan National Army as “moder-
ate.” High expectations in Afghanistan a ‘mistake’ That report came
on the same day that an interview
was published with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in
which Germany’s top diplomat
took stock of Germany’s Afghanistan mission in unpredictably
candid form.
“Our biggest mistake was to
awaken expectations that were too
high for the effort put forth to
fulfill them,” Steinmeier said in an
opinion editorial published in Sunday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), entitled “My lessons
from Afghanistan.”
Though Steinmeier claimed
that the situation in Afghanistan
is “better than it was 12 years
MPs ask for
shrewd cabinet picks
...P12
public wholeheartedly,” he said.
Katawazi further said that
those who are involved in corruption should be brought to the court
of justice. He suggested strict accountability mechanism to ‘catch
big fish’ who have built assets in
Afghanistan and foreign countries
through unfair means.
The graft cases should be investigated and corrupt officials
should be dismissed, he proposed, adding, “If the new government takes such actions against
those officials involved in corruption then definitely the people will
trust more the new administration.”
Ghulam Hussain Nasiri, an
MP from Maidan Wardak province, believes that if the cabinet
was mixture of new and old faces
then public would lose trust in the government and
there would be no significant development if compared
to the previous government as there would be no end
to corruption.
Providing suggestions to the new government about
formation of talented cabinet, Aryan Yoon, an MP from
Nangarhar province, said that priority should be given
to sincerity, knowledge, capability and patriotism when
appointing ministers rather than personal relations or
ethnic affiliation.
“If the cabinet was comprised of talented and committed persons then it will be not difficult to fight
corruption and prevent mafias from creating challenges. Though, it seems difficult but is not impossible.
First, the government shall introduce skilled figures as
ministers and later take the corruption cases seriously;
otherwise dreams of prosperity and development will
not come true,” she said.
According to sources in the Afghan parliament, the
government is going to introduce ministers to the Lower House for vote of confidence in November. It is said
that work over list of the future ministers is in final
stage.
ago,” he was openly critical - and
self-critical, seeing as though he
was foreign policy chief for half
of those years - of Germany’s
desire to “lead Afghanistan into a
future according to our own vision.”
With that said, Steinmeier
warned of any hasty withdrawal
of international forces from Afghanistan, “like the Americans did
in Vietnam in 1975.”
Steinmeier didn’t mention any
concrete details with regard to
how long German troops would
remain in Afghanistan, however,
remarking merely that Berlin, as
“friends of the Afghan people,”
would continue to work with Kabul “on its peaceful future.” (DW)
BAMYAN CITY: More and more
local and foreign tourists are flocking at the historic Gulgula City in
central Bamyan province following reconstruction bid worth $ 1
million granted by the government
of Italy.” height=”1" width=”1">
Gulgula City, a historic site
dating back to the golden period
of Islamic civilization saw much
of the destruction during the
Mongolian invasion in the 618
AH. Earlier it used to be called
Bala Hissar but was later changed
to Gulgula City during the reign
of Afghan Ghurid dynasty.
This beautiful area, spanning
over some five hectors is approximately at 150 meters height from
the ground and located right in
front of the historic statue of the
Buddha in Bamyan. Gulgula City
is among the eight historic sites in
Bamyan registered by the
UNESCO as world heritage.
Its rehabilitation drive has
been on for a while now under the
supervision of Paris based International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMS).
Kabir Dadras, director for
provincial Information and Culture department, said Italy has
granted one million dollars for the
project. He added the (ICOMS)
archaeologists and engineers were
busy in rehabilitating historic
dome-shaped house, two towers
in the city’s central and eastern
sections. Dadras expressed hope
that the rehabilitation drive would
prove handy in attracting even
more tourists. He added that currently second phase of the rehabilitation drive was underway.
Last year hundreds of domeshaped houses were reconstructed with the help of German aid,
he said, adding that this phase of
reconstruction still continued.
Bamyan residents too are optimistic that the process would
improve tourism industry in the
province. Safar Muhammad Asghary, a Bamyan University student, told Pajhwok Afghan News
(PAN) that historic monuments
of an area reflect its cultural heritage hence must be protect with
due respect. The way Gulgula
City is being reconstructed, it has
attracted even the locals to come
and see it again and again, he said.
Among other worth visiting
places in Bamyan includes the
site of Buddha’s statue, Band-iAmir (Afghanistan’s first national forest), Azdar pass, Stupa of
Kulegan, Fort of four minarets,
Royal city and others. (Pajhwok)
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