A young Afghan teacher’s commitment to children

By Najia Ahmadi

Freshta, a 20-year-old teacher who recently graduated high school, helps her students work through questions and exercises at a UNICEF-supported community-based school in the northern Afghan province of Balkh. ©UNICEF Afghanistan/2016/Ahmadi

MAZAR-e-SHARIF, Afghanistan, 15 July 2016: “Educating children and helping to empower my community is my dream because children are our country’s future,” says Freshta, a 20-year-old teacher who recently graduated high school and now teaches 25 children in a newly established community-based school in a remote village in the northern Afghan province of Balkh.

More than three decades of conflict have devastated Afghanistan’s education system and despite recent progress, completing primary school still remains a distant dream for many children in rural areas of the country.

“I was in twelfth grade when I started teaching children in the community-based school. It was my first experience,” says Freshta. I was chosen by the principal because I got the highest marks on my exams.”

Freshta attended high school in a village located more than 30 minutes on foot from her own home so she understands the importance community-based education first-hand.

“I faced so many difficulties to go to school. It was very far away. I dreamed to have a school nearby to my village so that even small children could attend the classes,” she recalls. “Now that we have a community-based school inside our village and I teach the children, it feels like a big accomplishment.”

Freshta wants to pursue a higher education and become a professional teacher: “I was inspired by my teachers while I was a student and I promised myself to transfer what I learned to other children”.

Freshta, 20, during a class at a community-based school in the Chahar Kent district of Balkh, northern Afghanistan, reads through an exercise with eight-year old Fahima: “I am in second grade and I can read and write. Our teacher answers all our questions and she gives us a notebook, pen, and pencil every year”. ©UNICEF Afghanistan/2016/Ahmadi

UNICEF re-started the community based approach to education in the north of Afghanistan in 2014, where 24 districts with very few primary schools and very low primary school-age enrollment were identified.

With support from UNICEF, more than 680 new community schools have opened in 300 villages in 15 districts — covering first to third grade — reaching nearly 19,000 children, more than half of them girls.

The number of community-based schools is set to increase until they cover all 24 key districts and ensure access to primary school learning for all children.

Thank you to the people and government of Sweden for their generous contribution to community-based education in northern Afghanistan.