Afghan Madrasahs Get a Makeover
KABUL, Afghanistan—At the Imam Hanifa madrasah, or religious school, some 750 elementary and high school students come from Afghan provinces far and wide to attend classes. As they sit at wooden desks beneath high white tents, boys in prayer hats and baseball caps study not only the Koran but also geography, English, and philosophy.
The school is funded by the Ministry of Education, and it represents a new experiment on the part of the Afghan government. Long reluctant to get into the business of religious education, the ministry has steered clear of madrasahs, widely regarded in the West as the ultraconservative training grounds of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan with a brutal hand until 2001.
But now, the government is hoping to create a new generation of moderate religious leaders for the country by funding madrasahs that teach not only religion but math and science as well—subjects banned under Taliban rule. In the next year, the ministry hopes to open one madrasah in each of the country's 34 provinces.
The deputy director of the Imam Hanifa school, Sayed Sakhidad, agrees with the concept. Like the Ministry of Education, he is well aware that families who want their children to have a religious education will send them elsewhere. "If there were no madrasahs like this in Afghanistan, then families would definitely send their kids to Pakistan," says Sakhidad. The home-grown madrasahs are an effort to counteract the influence of Taliban forces who use "education as a weapon of terrorism," says Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar.
Teachers here, though, remain wary of the ministry trying to exert too much control over the curriculum of the school—especially if the ministry is channeling suggestions from countries like the United States, for example. "If the Ministry of Education is independent, and isn't influenced by foreign countries that suggest things in the curriculum, that's good," Sakhidad adds.
But he emphasizes that schools would welcome more support from the Ministry of Education in other areas. Construction for new dormitories has been slowgoing, students say. "It's taken them so long to finish this little project," says one student, pointing at the rough frame of a building that stands empty and abandoned-looking in the middle of the day. "We could use that building—instead we study in tents because of government delays." This year some 300 students live at the school, up from 200 last year. When construction is complete, the school hopes to have space for 500 students in the dormitories.
In the meantime, students are anxious to get more computer training, too—but computer teachers are expensive to hire and tough to find. And there's another problem as well. Electricity at the school is spotty at best, sometimes only a couple of hours a day. At night, students study by kerosene and candlelight.
The seniors here say that they are ready to graduate and optimistic about the future of their country, where they plan to stay and work not only in mosques as religious scholars but also in businesses and government ministries. Still, they say, unemployment is a problem for many of their friends. "In the last six years, there are no factories opening and unemployment is huge," says one senior. And if that continues to be the case, they fear that some of their friends in rural areas may look elsewhere for money and purpose. "Unemployment is the main reason there's violence in the country," he says. "And if it keeps rising in the country, obviously the Taliban will get more strength and people will join them."