months, state employment plummeted from 100 percent to a few selected posts in schools, medical centers and government offices. In the Eastern Pamirs, where arable land is practically non-existent, livestock obtained in the course of privatization often became the only source of food and income.”
As Pamiris look ahead to the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan, feelings are mixed. Tajikistan has distinct advantages over Afghanistan— including a 99 percent literacy rate— but they are tenuous at best.
“ The Tajikistan education system generally speaking receives a failing grade among reviewers,” according to classbase. com.“ This is because Tajikistan is a poor country where teachers are paid low wages … and where bribes are still required to influence some admission boards.”
Students at Vanqala School in Tajikistan work on a math project measuring distances outside.
School buildings have largely outlived their usefulness and teacher quality is declining. Plus, athough education is both compulsory and free, there are associated costs.“ Many poor families are unable to purchase textbooks, uniforms, or books, or to cover transportation,” according to education. stateuniversity. com. As a result,“ many children need to supplement the family income by working in the home or in informal industry.”
Those who do make it through school face steep challenges: unemployment, the increase of criminal gangs, increased access to drugs flowing over the border from Afghanistan, and the temptation to make quick money smuggling everything from opium and cannibas, to cigarettes, alcohol, and even people, said Muyassar Kambarovich, a CAI consultant in Tajikistan.
The youth are the big wild card in the post- 2014 equation, he said. Fifty-three percent of Tajiks are 24 years or younger, and a growing number of them are dropping out of high school. Some join gangs, or are radicalized.
“ Tajik families send their sons for‘ Islamic education’ in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan,” he said.“ They come back and teach extremist thinking in their homes. People think,‘ Oh, he knows Islam best,’ and all people go to him.”
But that’ s not the kind of education Tajikistan needs, Kambarovich said.
“ If everything is religion and there is no modern education then we will have no engineers, pilots, doctors or teachers, no roads, electricity, TV,” he said.“ We need change and the best way to change people is with modern education.”
PAKISTAN The big news in girls’ education in Pakistan this year involved a young woman who actually no longer lives there. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by Taliban in 2012, was the co-winner with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’ s rights activist, of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
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