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Opening a School in Jalalabad

OCTOBER 2004

Godah School, Wardak province (student population: 111)
Noor Khel school, Wardak province (student population: 246)
Zahra primary school, Jalalabad (student population: 197)

On Oct 15, Ms. Basiri Basiri and her project supervisor travel to Jalalabad to visit the Fatima Zahra school and the Director of Education. 

Nsima, age 12, a girl from the Godah School

They meet first with the headmaster, Mr. Sidaqat and his teachers. Mr Sidaqat has worked with people with disability and is well known in the community. He has asked the district director of education to register the school but been turned down even though the school was registered several years earlier. In addition, there is a lot of demand for the school among the community. 197 girls are currently attending classes. Most returned from Pakistan last summer.

The school is in a government building and is some way from the village. Rainwater is coming through holes in the roof, and Ms. Basiri suggests that the school might want to use two tents that she has been given, but the principal asks that the roof be fixed rather than put the students in tents. Ms. Basiri thinks that the tents might be used to accommodate two new grades that are being introduced into the Noor Khel and Godah schools.

There are seven female teachers at Fatima Zahra. This is unusually high, but there were many teachers among the Afghan women who returned from refugee camps in Pakistan. Under the provisional agreement that has been worked out between Omid and the school, two teachers (and the principal) are to be paid by Omid. (This will come to $120 a month). The school is currently paying the five other teachers with wheat distributed by the World Food Program. There is some concern that they will leave when the wheat runs out, and Ms. Basiri is hoping to find money for their salary as well.

Due to the scarcity of female teachers, most Afghan girls are taught by men.

Ms. Basiri had planned to speak with the Director of Education about registering the school, but finds that he has been dismissed. His assistant, however, has some startling news. The government has opened another temporary school one and half kilometers away from Fatima Zahra to cater to returning refugee families that are living a large refugee center.

Ms. Basiri visits the new school and finds that it has four classes for girls (grades 1 to 4) and more than 12 classes for boys. She reports that they are all studying in open fields “with absolutely nothing. They have nothing to sit on, and there is not even a small blackboard.” Ms. Basiri is not allowed to take any photos since she does not have permission from the office of the director of education.

Ms. Basiri asks the principal and teachers of Fatima Zahra Primary School how they would feel about combining their school with the government school. They reply that the government school is situated in a vegetable farm and that most of the girls there are older than fifteen. That is not the sort of school they want their children to attend. Furthermore, it is too far from most of their homes. Finally, the government school does not have any female teachers or school supplies. The principal, argues that if there are extra supplies available they should go to his school. He has only received supplies for 100 girls, whereas 197 are currently in class.

The students in the Fatima Zahra school do not want to move to another school. In the event that their school is not registered by the government, they would prefer to stay at home. They do not want to study with boys in open vegetable farms.

Ms. Basiri again finds herself squeezed between two stubborn stakeholders – the government and the community. The government is insisting that she work with the temporary school for refugees and refuses to register the Fatima Zahra school. But Fatima Zahra is championed by its students and community. Ms. Basiri cannot force the government school on the villagers if they don’t want it, but without registration the school will receive no funding from the government.

On October 3, Ms. Basiri meets with Dr. Nasim, Director of Darman, an NGO which works mainly on health and provide vocational training in Jalalabad and Kabul. Two years ago, Darman completed a needs assessment in Nangrahar. It found that many communities had asked for schools, but that the government had made no effort to respond. Dr. Nasim provides Ms. Basiri with a list of the areas without a girls’ school. She decides to discuss it with the new director of education once he is appointed.

Ms. Basiri again finds herself squeezed between two stubborn stakeholders – the government and the community.

Ms. Basiri comes up with a plan. She decides to propose that the government takes all the girls from the new government school and puts them into Fatima Zahra, turning the government school into an all-boys school. She will also ask the government to cover the salaries of teachers at Fatima Zahra in 2005. (It is too late for them to be included into the 2004 budget). Omid would help them by providing school supplies, and technical support in the form of teacher training workshops. Ms. Basiri already knows three women’s groups that conduct workshops for teachers in Jalalabad. Ms. Basiri decides to go to Jalalabad after the celebration of the EID festival (mid-November), meet with the new director of education, pay the teachers and provide them with school supplies.


Afghan girls’ traditional dress typically contains bright, vibrant colors. 

Noor Khel and Godah Schools

The schools in Godah and Noor Khel are visited on Oct 23. Eight books (lesson and attendance) have been purchased for the schools, as they requested.

Absenteeism

There are now 111 students in Godah and 246 in Wardak. On average, between 3 and 5 students miss school each day. This normally happens if a mother is sick and the daughter has to look after her other small brothers or sisters. Or it may be that the mother has to travel out of the village for a meeting. Illness is another reason for absenteeism. A sick student cannot walk a long distance to school. All of the Godah and Noor Khel students have to walk at least 30 minutes to reach school.

Three girls in Godah school (2nd grade) have stopped attending school. The reason is that the classes were moved from the two mosques into four tents in the same location in September. This extended the time of their journey to 90 minutes. They tried to make it, but were unable to and no students have replaced them since.

Ms. Basiri discusses school registration with the teachers at Godah. The principal has followed up with the director of education in Wardak, and made sure that the application is submitted in the required Ministry format. Ms. Basiri and her project supervisor travel to Wardak to finalize the process.

During a visit to the Noor Khel school some of the students point out that some of their new uniforms do not fit. They ask that next time they are given fabric rather than uniforms so that they can sew it themselves, or given larger uniforms which they can reduce according to measurement. The principal asks for three new blackboards, because some blackboards have been damaged by rain.

Omid: The Omid Learning Center is starting to take shape. Ms. Basiri established the Human Relief Foundation in 2002, while she was still with the Afghan Women’s Network. When she left AWN, Ms. Basiri renamed her organization Omid (“hope”) and asked four distinguished Afghan women activists to join her on the board. These are:

• Sadia Hafiz, Deputy Director, Afghan Women’s Cultural Association (AWCA), Peshawar Pakistan. Sadia Hafiz who has been teaching social studies and peace education for more than eight years in refugee schools in Pakistan. She would be very helpful when she comes to Afghanistan, as she can provide training for our teachers.

• Halima Alikozai, formerly Media Manager, Afghan Women’s Network (AWN), Peshawar Pakistan. Halima Alikozai is not at present working with any other group. She has experience in grant writing and could be helpful in fundraising.

• Semin Qasmi, Program Manager, German Technical Zentrum (GTZ), Kabul Afghanistan. Semin Qasmi has extensive connections with national and international organizations and would be very helpful in raising funds locally as well as internationally.

Asif Nang, Information Officer, USAID/ RAMP, Kabul Afghanistan. Asif Nang is an editor with extensive experience in media relations. He helped us draft OLC’s constitution as well as with setting up goals and objectives for the organization.

A board meeting is held in October, at which it is decided that Ms. Basiri should not be on the board since she is an employee of Omid. This is an important step forward in the organization’s development, but it means that a replacement for Ms. Basiri will have to be found.

The board members suggest four possibilities: Ms. Jamila Afghani, Director of the Noor Education Center; Ms. Ayesha Faroq, Assistant to the Ambassador of the United Emirates, and Ms. Fatana Quraishe, a media officer at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. It is hoped that one will be able to join the board by December 2005.

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