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A graph showing the rise in children enrolled in schools in Afghanistan from 2001-2011

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Shabana Basij Rasikh around the age of eight, with her mother who helped her in and supported her education

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My sister remembers
A different time
From way back
When she was school-age
But she couldn't go to school,
And my brave sister,
She risked her life
And did something
Unthinkable!
She still went.

My sister tells me
And my classmates
Stories that make us shiver,
Our mouths drop open, and
Our eyes go wide.

She speaks in hushed tones
As if still afraid
Of them, the Taliban
And their horrible rules

Of worse times, when she

Wore boy’s clothes

And snuck silently

Taking a different path each time.

School was in a neighbor's house
Crowded with brave girls
Who were told they couldn't learn
And yet still did.
My sister's life
Was in fate's hands
And it willed her to survive
And my sister,
She did!

Life got better
So I can only hope
That someone
Anyone
Can hear me
And all my classmates
As we pray for a life
Not wasted in the streets
The dust, the dirt
But somewhere better
In a future that -
For once -
Isn't just a dream.

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“Afghanistan: Before and after the Taliban.” BBC News, BBC, 2 Apr. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26747712.
“Afghan Children Read Program.” U.S. Agency for International Development, 18 Sept. 2017, www.usaid.gov/news-information/fact-sheets/afghan-children-read-program.

Afghanistan Political Map with Capital Kabul, National Borders,..” 123RF Stock Photos, www.123rf.com/photo_30644350_stock-vector-afghanistan-political-map-with-capital-kabul-national-borders-most-important-cities-rivers-and-lakes.html.
“Afghanistan Population 2019.” Total Population by Country 2018, worldpopulationreview.com/countries/afghanistan-population/.

“Carberry, Sean, and Sultan Faizy. “Are Afghanistan's Schools Doing As Well As Touted?” NPR, NPR, 24 Oct. 2013, www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/10/24/240482395/are-afghanistans-schools-doing-as-well-as-touted.

“Education | Afghanistan.” U.S. Agency for International Development, 11 Oct. 2017, www.usaid.gov/afghanistan/education.
Fung, Mellissa. “Where's the Aid Money Gone? Afghan Girls' Struggle for Education.” GCC News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 10 June 2018, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/aid-money-afghan-girls-struggle-education-180606134316480.html.

“‘I Won't Be a Doctor, and One Day You'll Be Sick’ | Girls' Access to Education in Afghanistan.” Human Rights Watch, 17 Oct. 2017, www.hrw.org/report/2017/10/17/i-wont-be-doctor-and-one-day-youll-be-sick/girls-access-education-afghanistan.

Qureshi, Bilal. “Pakistani School System Highlights Wealth Gap.” NPR, NPR, 25 Feb. 2008, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19333953.
Saberin, Zeenat. “One-Third of World's Stunted Children Live in India: Report.” GCC News | Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 29 Nov. 2018, www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/world-stunted-children-live-india-report-181128191651345.html.

Staff, NPR/TED. “Shabana Basij-Rasikh: Under The Taliban, How Can A Girl Attend School Undercover?” NPR, NPR, 15 Dec. 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/12/15/570813485/shabana-basij-rasikh-under-the-taliban-how-can-a-girl-attend-school-undercover

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Map of Afghanistan, to left Pakistan and India

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A group of Afghan school children huddled together to learn in a tent

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The walls of the tent

Where my school is held

Are flimsy and dirty,

Our books stacked

Against one wall and

The teacher’s chalkboard

Which never has chalk
On the other wall

Five feet away.

There aren't enough books

For everyone -
Not even close,

So we share

And bend over the pages

So they don’t get wet or dusty

From the wind

That seeps its way through the canvas

And into our bones.

The walls are thin

And the entrance flaps

When people are late
Which is a lot.

We all need money,

And so we sell water, food,

Bags, hats -

Even if want to go to school

Our families need us,

So we stand in the dirt

Face the wind

And don’t learn anything

But how to yell out prices.

Every so often,
Only once in a while,
I learn something amazing
About the past, future, present -

At those times

I’ve learned to savor it,

Wonder about it,

Dream about

When I'll get back
To that tattered old tent
My only future
And the only place I'll ever learn.

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D. What is currently being done to address the problem?

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D. What is currently being done to address the problem?

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Recently, USAID has taken great strides to help thousands of those in need of a better, more complete education in Afghanistan. One of such strides is that in 2016 to 2017, “through UNICEF, USAID supported the establishment of 4,055 community-based education classes between 2016-2017, ensuring over 119,000 children in rural areas, including over 58,000 girls, have access to education.” In a population of 36,842,227, this might seem a small step, but consider that this only applies to children in rural areas. USAID has done much more to help students and schools in Afghanistan. For example, the organization “equipped over 154,000 teachers… with the skills they need to... educate the next generation,” it established a program called the Afghan Children Read Program that helped gather data on how to further assist students, and “printed and distributed 47.7 million textbooks” in Afghanistan. For a country with such a large population in need of an education, these steps affect many people in positive ways. However, organizations like USAID and UNICEF have much more to do to ensure more peoples’ education. According to worldpopulationreview.com, a website that informs on population statistics over the world, “literacy among the population of Afghanistan is only at 38.2% of the population over the age of 15 years, with males at 52% and females at 24%.” Additionally, in Aljazeera News, an article titled, Where's the aid money gone? Afghan girls' struggle for education writes of a quote from the former director of Afghanistan's Anti-Corruption Agency, Muzaffar Shah; "Our findings show that literally money was taken in cash to remote parts of Afghanistan by the trustees, and we had information that the money did not make it to the right people,"  Horrible conditions still persist because of corruption like this, but hope does as well - that that money might one day make it to and help the right people, and young men and women might finally receive an education they've struggled to attain. USAID is one of many organizations trying to reach out and help others in need, and it will keep working in coming years to help out Afghan students.

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C. Why should the rest of the world be concerned about this issue?

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C. Why should the rest of the world be concerned about this issue?

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The rest of the world should be greatly concerned about this issue because a lack of a decent education is affecting so many of our fellow human beings around the world today. In Afghanistan, education is rough. In Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, schools are facing similar problems.  “[Pakistani schools are] under-funded, under-equipped, [and] under-staffed,” reports NPR. The United Nations suggests countries have an education budget of “4% [gross domestic income].” Schools in the region, it also reports, spend just 2.4% - well below the suggested percentage.

Education challenges are prevalent across the region, often due to poverty and other issues associated with health and welfare. Education can be considered less important in areas, such as India, that, according to Aljazeera News, are dealing with “gender inequality, early child-bearing, open defecation... [a poor] economic status [and a] malnutrition crisis,"  - many similar problems Afghanistan faces. India's education suffers along with these other problems.

These are only a few of our world’s countries that are facing issues - not only in education, but in other aspects of life as well that people in more privileged parts of the world take for granted. The truth is, many people are presently facing difficult times and even harder futures because of a lack of education - and that should concern anyone. In privileged countries such as the United States and Great Britain, there are organizations to donate to that help less privileged countries. In short, the rest of the world should care about this issue because it's affecting so, so many people - who we can help.

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B. How has the problem affected the community directly?

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B. How has the problem affected the community directly?

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Children nationwide in Afghanistan aren’t getting the best education because of the shortages of materials, lack of capable teachers, and few buildings; that is obvious. The schools aren’t opening up doors to better futures for their students, nor giving them the education to make it there. If this continues without evident benefits of education, it’s possible that more and more students will give up school, or put it off, to work and help their families. Fawzia Hakimi sees it already at her school, saying, "Some boys can't attend school because they are working. When we ask them why they are late, some say, 'I was selling water, I was selling plastic bags.' " according to NPR. Because of this and other various reasons children aren't attending schools, they aren’t reaping the benefits of an education.

Under Taliban rule, conditions in Afghanistan were even worse - especially for girls. Farah Ahmedi, in her book, The Story of my Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky, names hardships such as women being severely punished if found outside without a male escort or caught not wearing a chadari - or burka - every time they went out. These rules would have made the time under Taliban rule difficult for girls even if they were allowed an education - which they weren't. Some girls, however, were determined to learn any way they could. One inspiring story is that of Shabana Basij Rasikh, who, along with a few other young girls, attended an illegal school for young women held in a private home. Rasikh faced many dangers for her choice - she disguised herself as a boy, took many different routes to the house to avoid suspicion, and put her life at risk every day. While a few stories like Rasikh’s exist, there are also many who couldn’t continue with an education because of the Taliban’s laws. The Taliban caused many people including countless women to suffer a loss of education that continues to affect them today.

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A. What is the problem and what are the root causes of the problem?

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A. What is the problem and what are the root causes of the problem?

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The Middle Eastern country nestled between Iran and Pakistan is facing a troubling problem: Schools in Afghanistan are facing shortages of supplies and resources as well as low attendance, which could affect the quality or amount of education students are receiving. Education does have a rocky history in the country. During Taliban rule (1996 - 2001), girls were forbidden from attending school, and fewer than ten percent of eligible boys attended in that time; religious and cultural beliefs as well as financial and economic problems bar some from attaining a full education; even now, shortages and low quality of supplies schools do have aren’t allowing students the education they deserve. However, even if the supplies were abundant and exemplary, it is questionable how many students are actually attending the schools they are enrolled in. There have been studies, in recent years, that show a dramatic rise in children enrolled in school in Afghanistan (almost 5 million children are enrolled in primary school), but according to a source on NPR News,  these statistics don’t tell the entire story. “Principal Fawzia Hakimi says average attendance is only a little more than 50 percent,” states an article by Sean Carberry. Another study shows that around 1 million students actually make it to high school - only a fifth of those who started out. Students are kept at home by a need to provide for their families (working or selling things for money), beliefs that girls shouldn’t go to school leftover from Taliban rule, cultural and religious duties that come before school (“ ‘We have a girl in sixth grade who is engaged,’ says Hakimi”) and even just an issue of distance with no available transportation. Almost half of students enrolled in school aren’t actually attending because of individual problems like these.

However, the schools also face problems. There is a lack of materials and few capable educators due to them never receiving an acceptable education themselves. Also, many teachers have nowhere to conduct classes outside of run-down buildings, or in worse cases, tents and on the bare ground. In fact, according to an article by Paula Bronstein on Human Rights Watch, "forty-one percent of all schools in Afghanistan do not have buildings." It’s a struggle every day to find the resources and time for school, and when students do, they are dealing with even more toil. Education has come so far since girls were denied attendance, but Afghanistan still faces many burdens in this area. Economic problems and poverty affect schools as well as the community, and in turn, the schools affect the students. Education in Afghanistan is facing many complicated problems, from low attendance rates and cultural challenges to few buildings and supplies available for use, all of it coming together as a great burden to students.