New skills, knowledge from program to benefit fellow teachers

By Phyllis McIntosh
Washington File Special Correspondent

Washington -- Although hampered by shortages of teaching materials, equipment, and even school buildings, Afghan elementary school teachers say they are dedicated to improving the education system in their homeland and sharing what they have learned in a five-week teacher training program in the United States.

In a conversation with the Washington File, Fraybaa Faayiz and Zarmeenah Sherzai, both from Kandahar, said there is a marked contrast between the "very developed system" of education in the United States and the situation in Afghanistan, where they teach classes of up to 90 students in makeshift classrooms housed in tents.

The two are among 12 Afghan women teachers participating in an intensive training program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) to enhance their English and teaching techniques, acquire basic computer skills, and learn how to conduct workshops for other teachers in Afghanistan. The program is part of the Afghanistan Teacher Education Project, launched in 2002 by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' (ECA) Teacher Exchange Branch. ECA estimates that by the end of 2004, some 500 teachers in Afghanistan will have completed training provided by fellow teachers who have studied in the United States.

"Teachers represent a vitally important exchange group because they shape the future of a country," said ECA's Assistant Secretary Patricia S. Harrison. "What they do now and in years to come is critical to our communities, our countries, and our world."

Faayiz and Sherzai said they were especially struck by the freedom students enjoy in America. "In Afghanistan, the teacher has total authority over the class," Faayiz explained. "The students can hardly speak or even move without the teacher's permission. Here it is more like a family atmosphere. There is friendship between teacher and students. That will be one of the best experiences we can take back, to give our students more opportunity to choose what they want."

The teachers said they were also surprised by the small class sizes in the United States and by the special attention to students with handicaps. At home, they are struggling just to keep up with the demand for education in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Especially with many young girls now coming to school, "we don't have enough buildings for them," Faayiz said. "Most of our students now are sitting in tents or just in open air on a field or somewhere. We don't have chairs, tables, textbooks, or whatever is needed. We have students who must walk for an hour or more just to get to class because we don't have enough schools."

Sherzai added that she teaches in a large tent with a cotton curtain dividing her 93 students from an adjoining class of 80 students.

The teachers noted several cultural differences between U.S. and Afghan students. They said they were surprised to see American children come to school in casual clothes and girls as young as sixth grade using makeup. In Afghanistan, all students wear uniforms, and makeup is strictly forbidden until a girl graduates from high school.

But there are similarities, too. "It is common for almost any child in the world to always try to find the answers to questions," Faayiz said. "American students ask us are we married, how many children we have, how life is in Afghanistan."

Like many other teachers in their group, Faayiz and Sherzai secretly taught Afghan children during the years of Taliban control, when women were not allowed to teach openly and schools focused solely on religious studies.

"Life under the Taliban was very tough for me as a teacher and as a woman," Faayiz commented. "Education is a part of Afghanistan's culture, and it was very difficult for me to see my children not be able to go to school and for me not to continue my career doing what I loved to do. But at home we were teaching our children and the children of relatives who would bring them to the house secretly."

For two years, Sherzai secretly taught math and the Pashto language to 150 girls at a Taliban-sanctioned religious school. "One day when I was in class, the Taliban secret police walked in, and the students quickly hid their papers under the holy books. The police asked who I was, and the official teacher and students told them I was the mother of one of the students, there to visit her child. But about two weeks later, the Taliban completely closed the school, even for studying religious subjects, and the rest of the religious schools in that area also were closed."

During their stay in the United States, the teachers visited schools throughout Nebraska and spent a week in Washington, where they visited a school and the Embassy of Afghanistan, met with officials at the White House and the State Department, and toured the city's monuments and museums.

Faayiz and Sherzai said they wish the schedule allowed more time for studying English and computers. Both expect to use their new laptops, which each of the 12 teachers will receive, to e-mail their newfound colleagues in the United States.

Reflecting on their experiences in this country, Faayiz and Sherzai agree that the highlight of their stay was the opportunity to know average Americans, especially the host families with whom they stayed, and exchange information about each other's culture and customs.

"Our American friends admire our social family lifestyle, which includes aunts, uncles, cousins," Faayiz noted. "And they are surprised when we tell them almost all our marriages are arranged. They ask how we could be happy with someone we don't know, and our response is that since our parents are older and wiser, we know they will choose right for us. That's why most Afghans are happy families, and the rate of divorce is only about two percent."

Asked what they see for the future of Afghanistan, Faayiz and Sherzai, who have 10 daughters and one son between them, said they look forward to "a very good future" for their children and expect their daughters will be able to pursue education as far as they wish.

"We have come out of a very terrible situation, and now we have the freedom to choose our destiny," Faayiz said. She noted that the Afghan people are proud of playing a role in bringing down the Soviet Union and helping "to open the door for a better and freer world. We are proud to be part of that new era. Therefore, we ask the world, especially the United States, not to forget us and to help us in our efforts to reconstruct our country."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)