“We liked the teaching methods, and we must implement the same in the classrooms so that all can learn,” said Shehla, the headmistress at Bibi Maryam High School in Afghanistan. Her statement is in reference to her newly acquired skills of how to build a community classroom that promotes social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Along with twenty-four other teachers, she learned these skills during a five-day workshop conducted by CWS-P/A.
During the training sessions, the teachers benefited from group discussions, exercises, and panel presentations. The activities helped promote an enhanced understanding of child psychology and child rights. In addition, the training also included sessions on peace education and methods to encourage family and community involvement in supporting learning.
“Our students still remember the activities that took place during the training camp,” added Shehla. Shehla referred to the two training camps that were held in September where as many as 120 students and teachers participated in these camps that imparted knowledge on civic education and human rights. More specifically, through a participatory method, the participants received essential information on child and human rights, gender, quality education, balloting, state and democracy, and elections.
In Laghman Province, CWS-P/A observed a greater acceptability among parents and communities to promote education, particularly of girls. The need to build capacity in the educational system continues so that the heightened interest and importance of education results in more parents confidently sending their children to schools where they believe it is safe and beneficial to their children’s futures.
The concerns for education are high across Afghanistan, where literacy and school completion rates are very low. In order to address this need in other areas, CWS-P/A recently expanded its work of the last three years to increase girls’ enrollment in Laghman Province to the adjacent province, Nangarhar. CWS-P/A already has a relationship based on mutual respect with the communities in Nangarhar, where it implements a health project. Therefore, successes similar to those in Laghman are expected in the selected schools in Nangarhar.