ALL CHILDREN IN SCHOOL AND LEARNING GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY ©Ministry of Education, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 2018 Cover photo: A young girl attends a community-based school under a tent in a returnee settlement in Laghman province in eastern Afghanistan, following her family’s return from Pakistan. ©UNICEF Afghanistan/2017/Aziz Froutan Suggested citation: Ministry of Education, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Samuel Hall, All in School and Learning: Global Initiative on Out-Of-School Children – Afghanistan Country Study, Ministry of Education, UNICEF, Samuel Hall and USAID, Kabul, 2018. ALL CHILDREN IN SCHOOL AND LEARNING GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY II GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY CONTENTS Acronyms and abbreviations VI Glossary VII Foreword IX Executive summary 1 1. Introduction 7 1.1. The Out-of-School Children Initiative as a universal development priority 7 1.2. Situational analysis 8 1.3. Understanding Afghanistan’s education system 9 1.4. Main educational stakeholders addressing OOSC 10 1.5. Research approach and methodology 10 1.6. Report structure 15 2. Profiles of excluded children 17 2.1. Overview and analysis of data sources 17 2.2. Participation in pre-primary education 18 2.3. Participation in primary and lower secondary education 19 2.4. Understanding the impact of child labour on school attendance rates 26 2.5. Children at risk of dropping out of primary or lower secondary school 29 2.6. Provincial profiles of excluded children 32 2.7. Analytical summary 35 3. Barriers and bottlenecks to education in Afghanistan 41 3.1. Demand-side socio-cultural barriers and bottlenecks 42 3.2. Demand-side economic barriers and bottlenecks 46 3.3. Supply-side barriers and bottlenecks 48 3.4. Political, governance, capacity and financial barriers and bottlenecks 54 3.5. Analytical summary 56 4. Existing policies and strategies to address barriers to education 59 4.1. Introduction 60 4.2. Demand-side socio-cultural policies and strategies 60 4.3. Demand-side economic policies 63 4.4. Supply-side policies and strategies 64 4.5. Political, governance, capacity and financial barriers 67 GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN III AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY 5. Recommendations and policy interventions 71 5.1. VISION: Making OOSC a multisectoral national cause 72 5.2. COORDINATION: Optimizing cross-sectoral approaches 72 5.3. GOVERNANCE: Towards structural changes 73 5.4. EDUCATION SYSTEMS: Targeting vulnerable groups 74 5.5. LEARNING: Addressing data and research gaps 78 Selected bibliography 80 Annexes 85 Annex 1 Methodology, key sources and data tables 86 A1.1. Steady state transition model 86 A1.2. ALCS 2013–2014 margins of error by province 88 A1.3. Primary existing government documents, strategies, policies and laws around education 89 A1.4. Data tables 90 Annex 2 Child labour 102 Annex 3 Captions 106 IV GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY FIGURES AND TABLES Figures Figure 1 Structure of the Ministry of Education, Afghanistan 10 Figure 2 Population estimates for 6–18-year-olds based on ALCS data and UNPD and CSO estimates, 2014 14 Figure 3 Age-specific attendance rates by level of education 19 Figure 4 Attendance rates by age, gender and level of education 20 Figure 5 Percentage of OOSC by age and location 21 Figure 6 Percentage of Kuchi OOSC by gender and education level 21 Figure 7 Percentage of OOSC by age, location and gender 21 Figure 8 Percentage of OOSC of primary school age by gender and wealth quintile 22 Figure 9 Percentage of OOSC of lower secondary school age by gender and wealth quintile 22 Figure 10 Percentage of school attendance of children aged 6–14 by education level of head of household 23 Figure 11 Percentage and number of OOSC of primary age 24 Figure 12 Percentage and number of OOSC of lower secondary school age 24 Figure 13 School exposure of OOSC of primary school age by gender 25 Figure 14 School exposure of OOSC of lower secondary school age by gender 25 Figure 15 Percentage of OOSC by age and type of location 26 Figure 16 Children aged 6–14 in child labour (%) by education level of head of household 28 Figure 17 Employment and school attendance rates of children aged 6–14 by gender 29 Figure 18 School attendance of children aged 6–14 by gender and child labour status 29 Figure 19 Head of household education level relative to children’s likelihood of engaging in child labour and being out of school, and of OOSC engaging in child labour 30 Figure 20 Relationship of participation in child labour to likelihood of attending school of children aged 6–14 by education level of head of household 30 Figure 21 Survival rates to the last grade of primary education for countries in the region, 2014 31 Figure 22 Dropout rates by gender and level of education 32 Figure 23 Primary education students expected to drop out before last grade by gender and top drop-out provinces 33 Figure 24 Percentage of out-of-school boys aged 7–17 by province 36 Figure 25 Percentage of out-of-school girls aged 7–17 by province 36 Figure 26 Rates of out-of-school children aged 7–17 over time by gender, Khost and Herat provinces 37 Figure 27 Difference in attendance rates of girls and boys, ranked (1= greatest difference) 38 Figure 28 Five Dimensions of Exclusion 38 Figure 29 Difference in school attendance rates by gender and age, 2014 44 Figure 30 Percentage of OOSC aged 6–14 by education level of head of household 45 Figure 31 OOSC rates (ALCS 2013–2014) and number of IDPs (OCHA, 2016) by province 49 Figure 32 Absolute number of teachers and percentage of female teachers by province 51 Figure 33 Government expenditure on education as percentage of GDP 55 Figure 34 Overview of recommendations 72 Tables Table 1 Children aged 6–14 engaged in child labour in Afghanistan 27 Table 2 Dropout and survival rates by level of school and gender 31 Table 3 Distribution of OOSC within the country by gender and province 35 Table 4 Rates of OOSC aged 7–17 and provinces with the highest differential between genders 36 Table 5 Overview of key barriers to education identified in Afghanistan 42 Table 6 Relationship between child labour and OOSC (%) by gender 47 Table 7 Rate of OOSC of lower secondary school age by employment status 47 GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN V AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS Afs afghanis ALC accelerated learning centre ALCS Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey AMICS Afghanistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey ANAR adjusted net attendance rate AOG armed opposition group CBE community-based education CCT Conditional Cash Transfer CSO Central Statistics Organization DHS Demographic and Health Survey ECD early childhood development ECE early childhood education EMIS Education Management Information System EQUIP Education Quality Improvement Program GDP gross domestic product IDP internally displaced person ILO International Labour Organization ISCED International Standard Classification of Education MENA Middle East and North Africa MoE Ministry of Education MoHE Ministry of Higher Education MoLSAMD Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled NESP National Education Strategic Plan NGO non-governmental organization NRVA National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment OOSC out-of-school children OOSCI out-of-school children initiative SDES Socio-Demographic and Economic Surveys SIGAR Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction TVET technical vocational education and training UNAMA United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO UIS United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNOCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UNPD United Nations Population Division VI GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY GLOSSARY At-risk children Children at-risk of dropping out of school and becoming OOSC. Attended but dropped out Out-of-school children recorded as having been in school at some point but no longer. Closed/non-existent schools Closed/non-existent schools that receive government/ international funding. Grade retention The process of having a student repeat a grade because the student failed the previous year. Students who repeat a grade are referred to as ‘repeaters’. Hidden populations A research population is ‘hidden’ when no sampling frame exists and public acknowledgment of membership in the population is potentially threatening. In-school children Children reported as currently being in school. Invisible children Invisible children are those children included in neither census databases nor the MoE’s EMIS system. Lower secondary school aged children Children aged 13–15 years registered in population-based databases. Preschool education Learning space offering early childhood education to children, prior to the commencement of compulsory education at primary school. School age in Afghanistan starts at 6 years old. Primary ANAR Number of children of primary school age (7–12 years) attending primary or secondary education divided by the number of children of primary school age. Primary school aged children Children aged 7–12 years (Grade 1–6) and registered in population-based databases. Will enter school later Out-of-school children of preschool and primary school age (7–12 years) who will enter school late. Will never enter school OOSC with currently no exposure to education at all, and with socio-economic characteristics that lead to very limited exposure to education in the future. GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN VII AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY ©UNICEF Afghanistan/2014/Mazar VIII GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY STUDY FOREWORD The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has achieved enormous progress in the education sector since 2001.