Challenges and Opportunities: Community College Development in Afghanistan

• In Event: Importance of Community Colleges and Global Counterparts to Higher Education: Building Dreams and Achieving Possibilities

Abstract

The author focuses on structural components of Community College development in Afghanistan and connects these structural components to aspects of ‘serving’ the communities in which the community colleges are situated. The case of Afghanistan illustrates the significance of accessible higher education and adds an interesting context to the study of development of community college education. No form of 2-year tertiary education existed in Afghanistan prior to 2006. Over the previous 10 years, however, Afghanistan has worked to develop a network of Community Colleges under the auspices of the World Bank. The primary purpose of these schools is to provide graduates with immediate, important skills that ensure employability in the workforce (Roof, Sadaf, and Weaver 2016).
The author spent nonconsecutive months in Afghanistan from 2013-2015. A series of one-to-one interviews semi-structured open-ended questions were given to the head of the Ministry of Higher Education, the Senior Education Specialist for the World Bank, the Chancellor of Kabul University and others. To facilitate this research qualitative data was also collected through focus groups and observations at a model school for two-year tertiary education.
Whereas most Universities in Afghanistan are overseen by the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Education (MoE) oversees Technical and Vocational Tertiary Education (TVET). The World Bank, UNESCO and other world aid agencies are promoting TVET, not for vocational schooling, but as a strategy to align education with the labour market, economic growth and development. TVET is primarily associated with 2-year tertiary education and is equivalent to what in the United States is referred to as Career and Technical Education. The term "community college" is used by the World Bank and UNESCO representative but is not yet common terminology used by government officials, faculty, parents, and students. In fact, the idea of 2-year postsecondary education is not a widely-accepted concept in Afghanistan, thus marking a clear need for the creation of institutions in this sector.
In 2001, around 1,500 male students attended 38 semi-functioning TVET schools. Today, 20,524 students (15% female) attend 61 TVET schools in 30 provinces. Yet, TVET institutions, only 2% of general school grade nine graduates and female enrollment is low. There are also no TVET schools at the district level and a lack of facilities and resources persist. Due to the importance of 2-year tertiary education for the country, the Technical and Vocational Education Department has been upgraded to the level of Deputy Minister in the new Tashkeel, a government office (Wardak 2011). Central in these changes are expanding higher education for the educated middle class that developed in the decade after the fall of the Taliban. This group generally enjoys access to electricity, the internet, health care, schools and sometimes universities. The middle class is essential to development as a stable tax base is needed to fund the basic infrastructure as international aid recedes. The scholarly significance of this research is to document changing institutional forms to support policy agendas of economic development, gender equity, and access to higher education.

Author

• David J. Roof, Ball State University