Challenges

Afghanistan has been suffering from conflicts and instability for many years. Due to fragile security conditions, teachers were often unable to receive training, develop their skills and keep their knowledge up to date. The fragmentation of the society along ethnic and cultural lines prevented unified and centralized training opportunities for teachers, which meant teaching was not a standardized occupation requiring a selection and eligibility process and/or a certification programme.

Subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry had an overloaded and advance-level curriculum at school, which was difficult to grasp for both students and many teachers alike. Afghan teachers had very limited access to international standards in education and good examples from other countries on quality teaching and learning. This has implications for the quality of education received by school children, which is critical to national economic growth and the future of Afghanistan.

Toward a Solution

The “Afghanistan Capacity Building Programme for Teachers” was designed by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (T?KA), to help the country overcome most of these challenges by providing a very convenient training centre. The centre hosts teachers from all backgrounds and all parts of Afghanistan and equips them with skills and knowledge in line with today’s high-standard teaching models through extensive practical and theoretical learning and teaching modules. The Programme has also facilitated the sharing of Turkey’s experience in education through study visits and peer learning activities in Turkey.

Considering the well-being of the future generations and capacity-development needs of teachers in Afghanistan, in 2016 T?KA provided teacher-training programmes in support of the efforts of the Ministry of National Education of Afghanistan, which aimed to offering on-the-job training for 3,000 teachers.  Since then, thanks to the convenient accommodation and training facilities built by T?KA in Kabul, over 4,500 teachers from all over the country have upgraded their teaching skills in a safe environment. The programme provided 1,152 hours of training sessions in the first year alone. To build on this success, in the following years T?KA allocated more of its resources and created the “Education and Teaching Support Programme,” a cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of National Education and Turkish universities, which aims to benefit all its partner countries. Initiatives under this programme include:

Afghanistan – TILT (Training on Integrated Learning and Teaching):

This initiative enables teachers in Afghanistan to maximize the use of available resources and turn subjects taught in schools into project-based classroom experiences, making students familiar with and curious about science and technology.  In order to equip teachers with the necessary skills, a programme was designed and successfully implemented. Under TILT, there are two concepts, STEM (global approach) and HAREZM? (Turkish model).

·         STEM: From 18 to 29 March 2019, in cooperation with Trakya University, T?KA provided applied STEM training for 24 Afghan teachers in Edirne, Turkey. The training eliminates the distinction between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics lessons, and represents an interdisciplinary approach. Of the teachers who successfully completed the training in Turkey, 23 conducted basic STEM training as trainers with the guidance of two Turkish expert teachers in December 2019 and March 2020 in Kabul. Over 160 Afghan teachers participated in these training sessions.

·         HAREZM?: In March 2021, an interdisciplinary training module developed and executed by the Turkish Ministry of National Education and the Istanbul Provincial Directorate was offered to 25 education experts from Afghanistan’s Ministry of National Education to complement the STEM training. As an innovative aspect, the HAREZM? programme includes social sciences and encourages challenge-based learning, i.e. how to teach by having students find solutions for real-life challenges.

Other training for teachers:

Learning Teacher, Curriculum Development and Education Management training sessions were all conducted in 2019 in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of National Education and the Afghan Ministry of National Education.

·         Learning Teacher Training was carried out twice and a total of 210 teachers participated in this training in Afghanistan and received a certificate.

·         Curriculum Development Training (one-week) was provided for 40 Afghan experts.

·         Education Management Training (12 days) was conducted for 100 managers working at 12 pilot schools in various parts of Afghanistan.

The Education and Teaching Support Programme aspires to ensure that on-site teacher training is provided by local teachers following the training of trainers (ToTs) in Turkey and Afghanistan, which would greatly serve the sustainable development of the country. For facilitating the Afghan trainers’ first steps as trainers, Turkish experts have provided guidance for their first training programme in Kabul.

The training programme can easily be replicated in other LDCs and developing countries as it was designed in structured modules that are appropriate for all geographical regions and cultures. Also, close collaboration with local authorities as well as Turkish partners is a significant element in terms of project success and sustainability. Empowerment of the local teachers by providing them with trainer’s skills is another sustainability aspect that would make the national education system more self-sufficient and lifelong learning more accessible for schoolteachers.

This initiative is a good example of South-South cooperation as it made the transfer of Turkish experience in the field of education possible. It is also innovative, as all the training sessions are conducted by using only locally-available materials, so that both urban and rural teaching settings would easily adapt the newly acquired skills and methods to their teaching practice. This practice contributes to Sustainable Development Goral (SDG) Target 4.c by increasing the supply of qualified teachers in Afghanistan through international cooperation. By providing support to Afghanistan’s efforts to train and retain teachers and trainers, particularly in rural and underserved areas, the initiative also contributes to the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) Priority area 5 (Human and social development).