A modern education system emphasizes free thought, creativity, the freedom to choose what to study based on a person’s talent and ability. It also involves the use of Information Technology and the skill to look at situations with an open mind and come up with creative solutions to solve problems. The education system in Afghanistan, however, is more conventional, emphasizing conformity, following the textbook without question, rote learning and an adherence to rules. The education system in Afghanistan is not modern or practical enough. Unemployment and poverty are two evils which are very high in Afghanistan and can be eliminated through education.

Last year, the unemployment rate was approximately 30% and approximately 33% of the population is living below the poverty line, according to a report by the researches and studies done on literacy rate and educational development. If Afghanistan has a proper modern education system, it could reduce both. Currently, there is no proper education system, let alone one that is modern and practical as well. There are fewer educational institutes compared to the population’s education and its emphasis first needs to start from the government level. The importance of education needs to be built on the individual level, since there are negative perceptions associated with the schooling for children, especially females, since illiterate and poverty stricken parents who make a majority of the population in Afghanistan feel that their children can earn from an early age, therefore, they prefer to put them to work, rather than in schools. Once the importance of education is highlighted only then, can the education system in Afghanistan flourish and provide education that leads to a better future for the current and future generations.

Then, we need to start providing basic education to people and afterwards go about making it modern and practical. In Afghanistan, the gross enrolment rate of students overall is less than 100%  which is a low figure due to the fact that parents do not realize that an education can provide their children with a more secure future and less chance of unemployment and thus poverty. The number of enrolled students is higher in the government schools because of the provision of free education. But, these schools unfortunately do not have modern and practical education, compared to the private schools. Government schools emphasize rote learning, conformity and no analytical thought whereas, some private schools provide an education which promotes analyzing concepts and modern trends rather than just memorizing textbooks and regurgitating them in exams. At times, there is no right or wrong answer, allowing free thinking, which means that students’ reasoning and thought processes are developed and their arguments count more than a single right answer. Since the number of government schools in Afghanistan is less than the numbers of private schools it is hard to provide quality education for the scholars. The change needs to start from here by increasing the number of schools providing modern education, reducing gender disparity in the attendance of schools  providing good quality education and also restructuring and re thinking the curriculum would provide great benefit to the people.

Even though there are a lot of primary schools, they make up most of the educational institutes; there is a lack of higher education institutes that provide free, quality education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. The number of students who enter the universities through (kankor) examination is really less than the students who graduate from high schools. This is vital for people to gain an education that will help them get employed and reduce chances of unemployment and poverty. And out of these, most are public universities not private universities and are for engineering, medicine and management sciences. More universities need to be there that provide free thinking, even courses in degrees like management sciences can be made more different and interesting. I feel that both private and public universities don’t provide that opportunity to allow creativity and innovation as they do internationally. So, the curriculums also need to be revised. In Afghanistan, a lot of teachers are not trained to teach. They may have degrees in the fields they are teaching, but getting a degree and being able to teach what you have learned are two very different things. Teachers need to be trained and certified to teach, as done internationally. Teachers need to create an environment in schools, where there is more emphasis on learning, rather than studying, and make learning more fun for students. This can be done through less emphasis on textbooks and the increased use of aids like computers and the internet and a more hands on and practical experience would help. This can increase the number of students that continue to higher education, reducing unemployment and thereby poverty.

The education system in Afghanistan is in dire need of restructuring. A proper, centralized education system that provides quality education needs to be there to allow equal educational opportunities for all the provinces. For the education system in Afghanistan to be practical, it needs to provide education that will help provide educational skills that will help the students in gain jobs in real life: it needs to be applicative. The number of technical and vocational institute could be increased. Vocational institutes in Afghanistan have a less number in the private sector.  an increase in the number could provide people with skills that will help them in their daily lives and to improve their situation in life, reducing unemployment and poverty. Unfortunately, currently, the education system is not modern or practical enough to alleviate poverty and unemployment. However, it can be made both modern and practical in order to help eliminate illiteracy, unemployment and poverty in the future. The government can focus on making the education system more modern and practical and in line with international standards that allow free thinking and education can be aligned with new trends like the use of IT as an aid in studying and research. People in our country are bounded to some discrimination either that is racial or religious. It is very unfortunate to see discrimination and racial controversies in our educational environment.