Afghanistan has progressed significantly in the sector of education during the years 2021 – 2021. According to the Ministry of Education of the Islamic republic of Afghanistan and UNICEF- post August 2021 “the students enrollment increased from 900,000 in 2001 to 9.5 million enrolled in 2021”, while thousands of schools are established and constructed across the country, thousands of teachers (male and female) are capacitated with teaching skills and schooling standards are upgraded. However, the data also shows that even “before 15th August 2021, 4.2 million children were not enrolled in schools, out of which 60% are girls”, and only 19% of the female below 15 years are literate, just 16% of all schools in the country are girls’ schools. The primary education, female teachers were reported 36.157% in 2019, while for the secondary education, female teachers were reported just 35.63 %.
In response to the mentioned statistics around girl students and female teachers, SADA has constantly been advocating for the improvement of girls’ enrollment ratios in schools. In this regard, SADA advocacy teams conducted several campaigns, awareness-sessions and trainings of community elders, religious scholars and parents on village (s), district (s) and provincial levels.
On 17th September 2021, the government announced the re-opening of the secondary schools after being-closed for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the government asked the secondary school girls to stay at home.
On 21 March 2022, the MoE publicly confirmed that 0n 23rd March 2022 schools will start for all children at all levels including girls. However, the last-minute U-turn by the authorities seriously disappointed the girls, families and the people of Afghanistan as the MoE extended the ban on girls’ secondary education until further notice. This ban directly affects 1.1 million secondary schools’ girls.
At this critical situation, SADA as girls’ education activist remain solid and will continue advocating for the re-opening of girls’ secondary schools. SADA will also keep promoting the expansion of girls’ education until every girl of this country have access to quality, safe and free education. Furthermore, SADA will continue advocating for the recruitment of maximum number of female teachers in public schools and educational institutes across the country.
For SADA’s ongoing advocacy programs, please kindly refer to the updated factsheet.
BACKGROUND:
Social Association for Development of Afghanistan (SADA) is a non-governmental, non-for-profit and non-political Humanitarian and Development organization. SADA was founded in 1994 when Afghanistan was severely affected by internal war and access to any humanitarian facilities and services was practically debarred.
SADA was established with a vision of “To alleviate poverty and human sufferings to see educated, self-reliant, peaceful and developed Afghanistan” by enhancing access to quality and free education, improving health system, upgrading local agriculture & irrigation systems, increasing awareness around hygiene and sanitation, and advocating for the rights of women & children.
SADA has started its first operation in Kandahar province by implementing a UNOPS funded WASH project with the total fund of $12,657 in 1996. SADA gradually expanded its operations across the southern region by establishing partnerships with UNOPS, UNDP, UNWFP, UNICEF, UNHCR, Malala Fund, Street Child – Children in Crisis, GPE, JICA, Action Aid, ZOA Refugee Care, Royal Netherland Embassy, PRT and the government of Afghanistan.
SADA has been able to successfully implement over three hundred small and large humanitarian and developmental projects in various sectors across the country. Those projects have greatly contributed in improving the living conditions of hundreds of thousands needy people. SADA built up strong relationships with communities and gained a particular acceptance among the local people.
SADA is headquartered in Kabul and currently has sub offices in Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand, Sari-Pul, Faryab and Urozgan provinces. On the basis of service delivery, the organization has good reputation among donor organizations, government officials, Community elders and other stakeholders.
