Implemented by Aga Khan Foundation Canada, the Girls’ Education Support Program (GESP) supports the enhancement of girls’ education through activities aimed at increasing access to quality learning opportunities and at promoting secure and supportive learning environments for girls.

The most important activities under the program are:

• Establishing early childhood development centres.
• Rehabilitating schools to ensure safe and appropriate facilities.
• Accelerating learning, teacher training, and management and leadership training in schools.
• Providing training to parent-teacher associations and community education committees.
• Providing women's literacy classes.
• Sharing good practices and lessons learned with the Afghan Ministry of Education and other partners.

The program works closely with the Afghan Ministry of Education to support girls’ education throughout the entire education cycle from early childhood development programs through to supporting women in teacher training colleges. The GESP is expected to benefit more than 100,000 girls in more than 300 schools in the provinces of Bamyan, Baghlan, and Badakhshan.

The Girls’ Education Support Program has achieved significant results to date:

• The program has successfully conducted teacher training sessions to 4,569 individuals, including teachers and educators.
• The Early Childhood Development (ECD) component of the program operates 61 community-based preschools supporting 968 children (more than half of whom are girls) and conducting training for 120 ECD teachers and assistants.
• More than 2,400 females have participated in the mothers’ literacy program. Through this program, 104 classes have been established with a facilitator trained for each class.
• The project has implemented 50 small-scale physical school improvement projects such as boundary walls and latrines to support girls’ access to education.

• Aga Khan Foundation Canada