PRT helps improve education standards in Helmand
26 Nov 09
The Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) has helped 450 teachers sit professional examinations as part of the Afghan Government's attempt to improve education across the country.
A Military Stabilisation Support Group meeting held at the Lashkar Gah Main Operations Base on Thursday 19 November 2009
[Picture: Sgt Rob Knight RLC, Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]
The national Afghan Civil Service reform and restructuring programme has seen 42,000 senior teachers undertake professional examinations simultaneously, men alongside women.
In Helmand province, the 450 teachers, of whom 155 were female, sat the exam in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The exam sessions began with a recitation from the Holy Quran by the Director for Islamic Education.
Deputy Governor Abdul Sattar thanked the International Security Assistance Force PRT for preparing the ground for the tests to happen in Helmand province. He said:
"The people of Helmand have an enormous expectation of their teachers to bring on future generations which will be capable of delivering better services to their society and work hard in the process of reconstruction.
"Anywhere in the world where there is peace, development and improvement - it is because the people are educated and literate; wherever there is war, adversity, backwardness and violation - this is because the people neglect education and literacy."
Teachers sit a professional examination as part of the Afghan Government's attempt to improve education across the country
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]
The exam process is an important example of the Afghan Government applying rigour to its employment and education policies.
The main aims of the testing process were to assist with merit-based recruitment, establish clear lines of responsibility within teaching posts and develop and underpin a new pay scale.
The results of the competency tests, coupled with a teacher's years of work experience and qualifications, will determine how individual teachers are graded in the Ministry of Education's system.
The tests themselves comprised general subjects such as maths, Pashto, chemistry, physics and biology, and more specialist questions relating to individual specialisations.
Brett Rapley, an education development specialist and former teacher from Australia working in the Helmand PRT, said:
"Today's exam is a classic example of national education policy becoming real to the people of Afghanistan.
"All too often the international community focuses on the deficiencies of Government service provision in Afghanistan, but this shows how things are moving in the right direction."
The examination room in Lashkar Gah
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]
Lieutenant Colonel Ed Flute, from the British Army's Education and Training Services Branch of the Adjutant General's Corps, assigned to Task Force Helmand, said:
"This is yet another example of how the combined efforts of Task Force Helmand and the Provincial Reconstruction Team are helping to bring about real change on the ground in Helmand.
"The security now enforced in the main population centres of Helmand is allowing many strands of social development to prosper. The evidence is clear in the significant increase in functioning schools and pupil attendance over this year."
There are now 102 schools operating across Helmand province. 63 of these have opened in the last 11 months. Student enrolment in June 2009 was 53,200 males and 14,335 females. This represents an increase of 18 per cent since December 2008. Female enrolment has increased by 14.5 per cent.
The Helmand PRT is helping the Afghan Government deliver effective government and security in Helmand province.
Its funding, and more than 200 international staff, are provided by the UK, US, Danish and Estonian Governments as part of the 43-nation NATO commitment to Afghanistan.
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