Education in Afghanistan since 2001: Evolutions and Rollbacks

Abstract

The post-Bonn government of Afghanistan shifted the violence curriculum of the Taliban into a peace curriculum in education. This study's mixed-method approach shows that despite facing security, corruption, resource, and cultural barriers to education, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan made significant progress both in terms of passing theoretical documents and practical achievements. The efforts that had been initiated and introduced began to encounter fragility following the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Banning girls from education above grade six has resulted in negative psychological and emotional effects on them. Continuing to limit academic freedom has started to hit the Afghan society. Ultimately, Taliban-led approaches to curriculum design prepare the way for closemindedness and neo-Taliban nation-building. Those would convey state ideology and justifications from the classrooms to the homes. The socio-economic consequences of depriving large strata of the population, including though not exclusively, women from qualitative education makes it impossible for Afghanistan to break out of its status as a country of low level of development.