Ambassador Visits Community-Based School
Canada’s Ambassador to Afghanistan
William Crosbie visited a school managed
by the non-governmental organization BRAC,
funded by the Government of Canada.
Education is a key priority for Canada in Afghanistan. Canada funds a variety of education projects throughout the country, including an approach to targeting children who fall through the cracks of Afghanistan’s formal education system.
Called community-based education, these schools often comprise just one or two classrooms and are usually found in private homes, thus creating a safe environment with which families are comfortable. Teachers are selected from the area, so are trusted by the parents, and the schools are only established if there is demand and support from the community.
One of the largest community-based education programs in Afghanistan is managed by the non-governmental organization BRAC, and is funded by the Government of Canada.
On Nov 16, Canada’s Ambassador to Afghanistan William Crosbie visited one of these schools, a five-room mud walled compound located on the outskirts of Kabul. The school has approximately 350 female and male students from grades one to three.
Ambassador Crosbie met the teachers and visited the classrooms, where the students demonstrated their reading and arithmetic skills, and told the ambassador of their desire to one-day become teachers and doctors. The youngest students, who read to the ambassador from their life skills text books, had entered the school just a few months earlier unable to read at all.
“These types of schools provide a critical education opportunity for children, particularly girls, who otherwise would not be able to access the formal education system,” says Ambassador Crosbie. “Canada’s support to BRAC’s community-based education program is a key component of Canada’s commitment to improve the lives of girls and women in Afghanistan.”
Canada is contributing $15.5 million towards the establishment of 4,000 community-based schools like the one in Kabul for approximately 120,000 schoolchildren - 85% girls - in 11 provinces in Afghanistan, including Kandahar. All of BRAC’s community-based teachers are women.
The programs follow the Ministry of Education’s curriculum and use the ministry’s textbooks the same as in the formal schools. The teachers are trained in accordance with the standardized Ministry of Education training packages.
For more information on Canada’s support for women and girls, please visit: http://www.afghanistan.gc.ca/canada-afghanistan/news-nouvelles/2009/2009_04_04.aspx?lang=eng
