Digital Divides: Envisioning Higher Education in Crisis and Conflict Context, A Case Study of Afghanistan

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The start of the 21st century opened a new hope for education and higher education systems in Afghanistan. With an increasing public demand and support from the international community, the government of Afghanistan embraced the notion of mass higher education as early as 2004, when private education and higher education were endorsed in the national constitution. This shift led to a vibrant growth in the higher education sector, with over 100 public and private higher education institutions established to accommodate the influx of students seeking higher education and a better future.
Despite significant advancements in academic systems and services, the COVID-19 pandemic resurfaced the digital divide between the countries in the Global North and the Global South including Afghanistan. Both schools and universities endured a new global challenge in addition to an existing poor economy and limited resources. Given that the country does not recognize online education and lacks policies to regulate it, handling education and higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic left the system in a state of organized chaos. In other words, integrating alternative systems to deliver higher education in the midst of Pandemic was delegated to individual institutions and faculty.
Before the country could recover from the side effects of the global pandemic, the higher education sector faced another challenge: a change in the political regime, which led to the abandonment of education and employment for women and girls, and the loss of faculty and scholars. Despite ongoing efforts by the international development communities and Afghan scholars in exile, institutionalizing an online education system for silenced voices such as women and girls continues to be a significant challenge. In other words, a lack of recognition of the online education system undermines the credentials and hard work of participants when Afghanistan remains the sole employment hub.
Characterized as a closed-space, the current state of higher education in Afghanistan raises new questions and challenges concerning access to education and higher education and the role of digital technologies in reaching those who are excluded by the national system. By critically examining how international development communities engage with higher education, women and girls in particular, in absence of de facto administration, this panel aims to shed light on the current status of higher education, where we are, and what are the hopes and threats moving forward.
Specifically, this panel will focus on digital divides in crisis and conflict contexts, focusing on Afghanistan. It will examine the impact of digital divides on women and girls, inequities and the digitization process of the entrance exam to higher education, online and distance education policy of public higher education, the adoption and consequences of technology in private higher education, and the challenges and resistance to the integration of technology in universities curriculum. The panel discusses the presence and absence of technology in crisis and conflict contexts and how it perpetuates existing societal inequities while offering alternative learning mediums for others, specifically for women and girls. It will explore the promise and perils of digital transformation in higher education and its challenges amidst socio-economic and political instabilities.
Three questions that guide our panel discussion are:
How do public and private higher education institutions adopt and integrate digital technologies in contexts of resource scarcity and limited student access to modern technologies?
How does the digital divide impact women and girls, particularly in a higher education system that does not equate online and distance education with in-person education?
How do government policies and institutional practices leverage modern technologies to facilitate college entrance and curriculum delivery?

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Organizer

• Javid Mussawy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Chair

• Nangyalai Attal, UMass Amherst

Individual Presentations

• The Impact of Digital Divides in Public and Private Universities in Afghanistan - Javid Mussawy, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Nangyalai Attal, UMass Amherst

• Digital Divide and its Impact on Women and Girls in Afghanistan - Farzanah Darwish, Sahar Education