WORLD BANK
Additional School Building Improves Learning Environment in Eastern Afghanistan
BEHSOUD DISTRICT, Nangarhar Province – Eighteen-year-old Rezwanullah started school with enthusiasm as a first grader in 2008. He never imagined then how physically challenging school would be. In his first grade, he would walk to school with a small carpet in his bag in order to have something to sit on when he reached class.
“Studying under the shade of a tree was not comfortable,” recalls the tenth grader at Mohammadi Sahebzada High School. For seven years, he had classes in the open and struggled with the hot weather, dust, and rainy days. “They were not good times,” Rezwanullah says. “We had difficulties focusing and learning our lessons properly. The hot weather of Nangarhar was unbearable.” Now Rezwanullah and his friends visit the schoolyard to enjoy their breaks, surrounded by school buildings where their classes are held.
Nine years ago, Mohammadi Sahebzada High School had only three buildings. More than 10 classes, including Rezwanullah’s, were held under tents and trees because of lack of space in the buildings. These challenges were partially addressed when in 2008 Mohammadi Sahebzada High School received a 3.2 million afghani (about $64,000) Infrastructure Development Grant from the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) Educational Quality Improvement Program (EQUIP).
With the grant and a community contribution equivalent to 10 percent of the grant, the local Community Development Council constructed an eight classroom building, providing a safe and enabling learning and teaching environment for more students and teachers.
“We have real classrooms,” says Safiullah Bahir, 24, who teaches history and civil information at the school. “In the building, students and teachers have no distractions. We can teach comfortably and answer students’ questions properly.”
Vital Community Support
EQUIP, which closed in December 2017, sought to increase equitable access to quality basic education, especially for girls. It was implemented by the MoE and funded by the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), administered by the World Bank on behalf of 34 donors. EQUIP was originally supported by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s fund for the poorest countries.
EQUIP distributed around 875 grants to the schools in all 22 districts of Nangarhar province (to 500 schools in the first generation of the project and an additional 375 schools in the second generation), constructed 31 school buildings and established 856 School Management Shuras (Councils).
“I think working closely with people and being attentive to their concerns in our plans helped EQUIP meet its objectives in Nangarhar province,” says Muslim Ebrahimi, former EQUIP provincial coordinator in Nangarhar. “Without the community’s support we would never be where we are now.”
EQUIP was recently succeeded by the EQRA (education) Project. EQRA is a $298 million five-year project. Funding for EQRA comes from three sources – a $100 million grant from the IDA; a $210 million grant from the ARTF; and a $98 million grant from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), which is the only partnership and fund that aims to strengthen education systems in developing countries. The objectives of the project are to increase equitable access to primary and secondary education in selected provinces that are lagging behind, especially for girls, and to improve learning conditions in schools and transparency in the Ministry of Education’s resource management.
