Khogyani District Education Support Project

As a first step we have built two large schools in the Khogyani District/ Nangarhar Province, one of which is designed for girls.

The two schools are located in the villages  Nokur Khel and Ahmand Khel (Wazir). Constructed earthquake-resistant and in the typical local style, they include sanitation and basic equipment . They were officially inaugurated in March 2004 and together will be attended by more than 1,440 boys and girls.

Since the schools have been approved by the Directorate for Education in Nangarhar Province the teachers’ salaries and maintenance of the buildings will be covered by the government.

The attendance of girls will slightly improve the educational situation of young women, although rural Pashtune society still frowns upon women leading lives outside the home.

After 23 years of war, the Afghan school system has been almost totally destroyed. The extremely high illiteracy rate is a major contributing factor to the country’s problems:

• limited access to higher-income jobs
• extremely scarce human resources for reconstruction
• status of women in Afghan (especially rural) society