Memorandum submitted by the British Council
SUMMARY
The British Council re-commenced operations
in Afghanistan in June 2004. We now have one centre in Kabul and
a contact point in Balkh (Mazar al Sharif).
We play an important role in the UK's contribution
to the international efforts to build stability and enhance democratic
institutions in the country. Our work focuses on extending educational
opportunities and strengthening the post-Taliban renaissance of
culture, particularly re-establishing links and contacts with
the outside world, after more than two decades of international
isolation.
In order to provide access to international
sources of knowledge and training, there is an over-riding need
for capacity-building in the English language. This work includes
building the capacity of English within the Afghan Parliament—both
for elected members and for staff—to enable it to co-operate
more effectively with its external counterparts and benefit more
fully from training provided by its international partners. We
also undertake similar work with the Ministry of the Interior,
in collaboration with the British Embassy drugs team, to assist
with implementation of the counter-narcotics programme.
We are building strong partnerships with the
Ministries of Education and Higher Education, which are assisting
in curriculum modernisation for the madrassah system (broadening
access to vocational education), providing access to UK experience
in education reform, capacity-building for English teachers, and
building research and other links for Kabul University and Kabul
Medical University. There are 16 country-appointed staff and four
UK-appointed staff, working to meet the high level of demand for
our services and for access to UK resources and partners.
Security concerns limit our ability to capitalise
on these opportunities and place constraints on attracting UK
staff, consultants and visitors and on their ability to travel
beyond Kabul and the North. As a result, we carefully target our
efforts and resources, with greatest emphasis on reaching enablers
and multipliers as well as partners who can help provide impact
in the provinces.
The points below demonstrate how we achieve
national impact despite the constraints of the challenging security
situation:
1. We work closely with the Afghan government
at senior levels in Ministries in order to assist with policy
development in such areas as curriculum.
1.1 We do this both through employing in-country
advisers and bringing in external consultants. Through extensive
talks with Afghan officials we identify policy areas of interest
then sponsor study tours to the UK for Afghan officials to identify
specific areas for follow up.
1.2 Study groups contain representatives
from all levels of engagement—policy (ministers, MPs), administrators
and practitioners—and help garner a wide base of support
so that the projects have continued support even if the government
changes.
2. The focus of our training activities
is to build the capacity of Afghan trainers in universities and
ministries so that techniques can be passed onto to lecturers,
teachers and students in the provinces whom we would not otherwise
be able to reach.
2.1 We currently work with central institutions
in Kabul which prepare students for work elsewhere in the country.
We will shortly be expanding our outreach by bringing in lecturers
and teachers for the provinces into Kabul to attend workshops.
3. Ensuring that our work has a sustainable
impact necessitates working closely with Afghan institutional
and governmental partners.
3.1 Our work with the Ministry of Education
Control (Inspection) Department enables the Afghan Government
to assess how far the techniques and methodology learned by trained
teachers is being applied in the country's schools.
3.2 We are a strong supporter of ELTAA,
the Afghan English Language Teachers Association, which is slowly
expanding to have a nationwide presence; the association and its
training programme offer an ideal way of providing access to provinces
we cannot reach directly.
3.3 We also provide ministries with useful
information on educational websites they can use, and are making
our own English Language Teaching website, Go4English, more accessible.
Originally in English-Arabic it has already been translated into
Farsi and we planning to translate it into Pashto so that the
southern provinces can benefit.
3.4 Among other new methods of extending
outreach we are also considering filming training sessions and
burning them to CD for national distribution.
4. Our Direct Teaching provides vital language
skills to key officials who will be able to use their improved
knowledge of English to contribute to the development of their
country. Past students have included Parliamentarians, ministry
officials and the Vice President.
5. Local partners/NGOs are vital in helping
us to carry out work in areas in which it would just be too dangerous/culturally
impossible for us to do so. Next week, for example, we will begin
conducting music classes for girls in Kandahar utilising the services
of a local cultural organisation.
6. We have countered the restrictions on
our limited physical presence by building up a communications
network across Afghanistan.
6.1 In 2006-07 we supplied computers and
a one-year Internet subscription to Faculties of Education across
the country. This has enabled us to interact more directly with
those institutions, discussing issues and exchanging ideas and
information.
6.2 We have also supplied similar facilities
to schools in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Mazar which will take
part in our school links programme (with the UK) as well as a
number of government madrassas in other provinces.
7. We have a greater programme of material
assistance to institutions in Afghanistan than we would normally
have in any other country.
7.1 We provide computers and small generators
(in institutions where they would otherwise have been unable to
power the donated computers), books and CD-ROMS. The latter, materials
from British Council training websites, are a particularly valuable
tool as many institutions/schools have access to computers but
no internet connection.
7.2 We have also set up self-access facilities
in the Islamic Education, Sports and Curriculum Departments of
the central Ministry of Education which visitors can access from
across the country.
8. In order to support all these outreach
activities we will also deploy Afghan Study Skills Officers. They
will initially be responsible for training targeted institutions
in the use of computers and the internet and will then take on
responsibility for a wider portfolio of training. This vital training
will ensure that maximum benefit is gained from the computers
donated.
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