Schools’ body to help strengthen education in Afghanistan

Tribune News Service

Ambala, December 6

The National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) will help Asia Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in their project of strengthening and developing affordable private schools in terror-hit Afghanistan.

A delegation of representatives from the Afghanistan ministries of education, economy, finance, refugee repatriation and rural rehabilitation, Asia Foundation, and private schools’ union from Afghanistan is on a 10-day study tour of India.

Kulbhushan Sharma, president, NISA, told The Tribune today: “The Afghanistan government has been making efforts to rebuild its education system. Asia Foundation and the USAID are implementing a project to support development of affordable private schools as an alternative to government schools. The delegation has approached the NISA to help them in their project.”

There are more than 1,600 private schools in 31 provinces of Afghanistan.

The delegation informed the NISA that insufficient classrooms had forced the Ministry of Education to teach students in double shifts and sometimes in three shifts, Sharma said. “The Ministry of Education has estimated more than 3.5 million children are out of school and the major factors are economic, cultural, security, and distance between school and home. Schools in the remote areas have been completely destroyed in terror attacks.”

Soon, a delegation from the NISA would visit Afghanistan and help its government in strengthening affordable private schools.