Fast Track Education for Afghan Women and Girls

Recent Developments in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been stunned by recent developments and people are adapting as best they can, to a new situation which remains both unclear and uncertain as to the future.  AIL’s current priority is to provide urgently needed assistance to the thousands of displaced families who have flooded into Kabul and Herat. Some of our Learning Centers provide a staging point for aid. Our clinics have expanded their capacity to cope with the large numbers of refugees that are in the area.. Our staff are all working, though offices currently are men only with women working from home.

The centers are all female and await instructions from the Taliban with regard to procedures required for reopening centers to our students. As our fast track classes are run outside of normal schools, and they cater to women and girls not normally found in school classes, these classes have always been held in our Women’s Learning Centers. The unfortunate closure of our centers means these classes are not being held as of now. 

The Yacoobi private schools are open and operating under the rules that have been given such as dividing male and female. It is exam season and students are studying hard and sitting their exams as usual. It is a great credit to them and their teachers as everyone has heightened levels of fear, stress and anxiety. The private TV and Radio Meraj are not broadcasting but awaiting instructions in how to recommence and staff are creating content and archiving materials for broadcast at a later date.

We have been touched by the outreach of support and outpouring of donations to help the Afghan people. We thank you for standing by Afghanistan as it faces another humanitarian crisis on top of Covid-19 and drought. 

Update on Fast-track classes

Fast track classes were introduces to cater to those students who joined courses with some knowledge and those who were able to progress more quickly than their peers. One of the most popular fast-track classes is literacy. AIL has 7 levels of literacy class as well as the fast track mobile literacy class. Literacy is the gateway to other learning and is often the first and most popular class students want to join. In the first half of 2021, Kabul and Herat Learning Centers had 2,516 students studying at various levels of literacy. Computing classes were attended by 583 students and English had 2,409 students. 

Thank you for your support.

The Fast-track program is a vital resource for women, especially those in rural Afghanistan. The Learning Centers that hold the Fast-track program stretch across 16 provinces. AIL provides training in human rights, women’s rights, leadership, peace, democracy, good citizenship and other capacity building topics. Leadership training is transformative. If there are female leaders in society, the violence decreases dramatically, because women can solve problems without using weapons and violence.

The students in fast track classes gain leadership skills along with following their class curriculum which means for example, tailoring students feel able to set up a business, English class students confidently attend interviews and gain jobs. AIL’s leadership training takes place in two ways.  AIL holds in-depth leadership workshops and also integrates the teaching of leadership into every workshop and every class in AIL centers. So far in 2021, 122 people have attended leadership workshops. AIL also supports a special 2 year leadership course for 30 students at the Yacoobi high schools. Leadership workshops include topics such as what makes a good leader, management, listening skills, self- confidence, public- speaking, building good relationships, politics, democracy and peace.

In part, AIL’s Leadership training seeks to help participants understand that anyone can be a leader and to enhance the participants’ ability to take a variety of leadership roles in their community which demonstrate democratic core values of liberty- personal, political, economic freedom, common good, justice and equality. Based on feedback from participants, AIL has long known that its leadership training have resulted in the participants taking leadership roles that were new to them following the workshop. 

Thank you for your support.

Covid-19: AIL continues with its relief efforts providing food aid, PPE and running a Covid-19 hospital. All health clinics are operating and Learning Centers and schools are holding classes. Radio Meraj continues to broadcast the latest Covid-19 information.