Expanding Our Thoughts About Education Around The World.
4J on Monday we had the deepest discussion of the year after you watched the trailer for the movie ‘Wadjda’. We had questions and interest in how other countries cultures work and how children are educated around the world. I have found this inspiring article on the ‘World Education Blog’. I would like to take a read, look at the image and tell me your thoughts in a double entry journal response. We will identify some key facts and you will be given the opportunity to express your thinking in the way you respond.
Have a read:
Nahida, a school principal in Kabul, is the third participant in our ten-week #TeacherTuesday campaign. In Afghanistan, conflict has raged for decades, cultural opposition to girls’ schooling is deep-seated, and education for girls was banned altogether under the Taliban. Nahida describes how she has struggled for 25 years to defend and improve girls’ education in the face of gender bias and conflict that still affect her work every day.
After graduating from Kabul University in the late 1980s, Nahida became a teacher. But then the Taliban came to power.
Under the Taliban: a secret school for girls
“It was their policy to close all the schools for females. For me, it was difficult to go to school to teach. When I went to my school, the principal was a mullah and he didn’t allow me to enter and asked me after that not to come to school. But for the boys, school was open.
“When I understood the policy of Taliban was not to allow girls and female teachers to go to school, I started a home school for girls that was very secret and not official because families and their parents asked me to teach their daughters. It was a very strict time. Very difficult. I was afraid.”
When the Taliban fell, the way was open to restore education for girls. But first everything had to be rebuilt from scratch – there was literally nothing left.
The long process of rebuilding
“When I went to my school it was completely destroyed. The buildings had no windows, no doors. The surrounding wall was destroyed. Schools didn’t have any chairs, tables, blackboard, chalk – no school materials at all. First I cleaned the classes with the help of my teachers. I made the surrounding wall in mud and stones. I gave messages to families and, mosques and asked them to send their daughters to school.
“The girls came back slowly, slowly. I encouraged families, asked their parents to school, encouraged them, talked with them. Also I sent my female teachers to their homes. I announced it in different mosques.”
Despite improvements over the decade, the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2013/4 shows that Afghanistan still has the highest level of gender disparity in primary education in the world with only 71 girls in primary school for every 100 boys. In 1999, no girls were in secondary school in the country. By 2011, there were still only 55 girls in secondary school for every 100 boys.
