11 January 2010
"I have been with this school for only a few months but I've been teaching for 41 years,” says 62-year-old Haji Mir Abdullah Hakem.
“Before the school was completed, local children were taught sitting under the trees. In the winter is it very cold here and in the summer it is very hot - attendance was poor.”
Mr Hakem is the headmaster of Qala E Murad Baig school in Kabul province. The school was built in 2008 by the area’s community development council (CDC) as part of the Afghan government’s National Solidarity Programme (NSP).
Under the NSP, to which DFID has provided £38.5 million since 2003, locally elected CDCs are given a budget and allowed to prioritise their own community’s development needs. These usually include education, health, water and sanitation.
Qala E Murad Baig school cost the local CDC £130,000 to build. Currently there are 1,800 students at the school - 1,200 boys and 600 girls from 20 villages across the province.
Furniture and some books are provided by the Afghan Ministry of Education, while parents also contribute to the upkeep of the school building and cover the cost of some of their children's learning materials.
School attendance across Afghanistan has increased every year since the Taliban fell. "Under the Taliban, attendance was even worse," says Mr Hakem. "It was illegal for girls to go to school. Some boys did (go to school), but not many. Life was hard, and the government gave no money for education.
"Even in the Ministry building, there was no furniture," he adds. "You would go there and find the Minister sitting on the floor.
"I had to stop teaching, and became a shopkeeper to support my family. I was very happy to return to teaching in 2002. Educating Afghanistan’s children is fundamental for the future of this country.”