Dateline ACT

Afghanistan 10/02

Desks and chairs: simple necessities bring dignity to Afghan students

Ghorban, Afghanistan, November 3, 2002
By Chris Herlinger (Church World Service)

Church world Service is a member of ACT International

In a region where literacy rates are low and poverty is taken for granted, a school desk and a chair are signs of dignity.

It is a theme repeated again and again by students, teachers and school administrators in Hazarajat, located in central Afghanistan.

With its mountainous villages and striking vistas, Hazarajat is a stunning place, but it is plagued by the misfortunes often common to isolated regions: political instability, food shortages and poor schools. (To these, add a fourth - landmines. To get from the capital of Kabul to Hazarajat, you drive through gorges and fields all sullied by mines placed during 20 years of war and upheaval.)

Schools have had a particularly hard time of it: neglected during the Taliban era, Hazarajat's schools are rebuilding and rebounding slowly, which is why the community of Ghorband welcomed a June and July shipment of more than 1,000 school desks and chairs.

The shipment by CWS and administered through its local partner, the Ghazni Rural Support Program (GRSP), is part of a program providing some 50,000 students in seven rural communities school desks and chairs; desks and chairs for teachers are also being provided. (The actual number of student chairs and desks is 25,000, since Afghan schools normally are taught in two shifts.)

The project may seem basic. But as Din Mohammad, the school principal in Ghorband, explained recently, the connection between a desk and a chair learning is no small matter. "When students were sitting on the ground, they weren't so eager to come to school," he said. In fact, he said, since the arrival of the chairs and desks, some 150 more students have attended school, and there has even been talk of town elders wanting to attend.

That's not surprising, said Esehaq Zerak, GRSP director. "Chairs and desks," he said, "can be an incentive for a community to improve their schools."

This is particularly the case as Afghanistan tries to overcome the sorry and dispiriting legacy of educational discrimination against girls and women since neither could attend school during the Taliban era - though many learned on their own in "secret" settings.

Disparities are still evident: some 400 girls attend high school in Ghorband, compared to 1,754 boys; the boys have a larger space, while the girls are crowded into much smaller buildings. (As is the custom in Afghanistan, boys and girls are still taught separately.)

But the girls display far more eagerness and enthusiasm than the boys: it's as if they know they have to make up for lost time, and they are grateful for anything -- like the chairs and desks -- that makes their learning easier and more productive. "It's helped us a lot," said Nafeesa, 14, who hopes to become a doctor and who says the improvements have made her studies of mathematics more pleasurable. Nooria Muhammadullah, 14, and her classmate Najiba Yaqoob, 14, agree, but said more is needed -- more books, more supplies, more paper. "We want to get out of this trouble," Nooria said.

Din Mohammad, the principal, agrees, saying that addition to supplies, schools are in need of repair. "The foundation of Afghanistan's reconstruction will be education," he said. "Without it, the country can't progress."

But he returns, again, to the simple necessity - and logic - of the chairs and desks, noting that before their arrival, students sitting on dusty ground would often get sick. "Health is wealth," he said. "Now the students can seek knowledge in a better, more secure way."