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Girls at Rahman Mena Girls’ High School, in the Kart-e-Naw district of Kabul, practice their computer skills.
THE ROAD
by Katie Smith
In Badakhshan, the northernmost province of Afghanistan, computer literacy has not made it up the rocky, pitted road to the students and villagers that reside in the shadow of the Hindu-Kush Mountain range. Teachers keep track of attendance, homework, and test scores the old-fashioned way, with paper and pencil. Students scratch out math problems on scrap paper and handwrite all their assignments.
It’ s not an aversion to technology that keeps these rural communities decades behind the technological revolution. The problem lies in education. Ten years ago the
Afghan government distributed computers to the schools in the region, but without an instruction manual the teachers and administrators could not turn the machines on, let alone use them to keep track of students and test scores. The computers sat collecting dust, and the villages remained disconnected from the rest of the world.
Ten years later, there is increasing demand for computer literacy in this region desperate for knowledge. CAI’ s partner in Badakhshan, Marcopolo Social Services and Reconstruction Organization( MSSRO) has introduced a capacity-building program that not only teaches school administrators how to use computer technology, but also how to teach their colleagues to use the machines too. The training takes place through the Baharak Learning Center, a vocational training school with branches in several communities.
“ First, we have to train them to use computers,” explains Janagha Jaheed, MSSRO’ s director.“ With training, one computer now is more valuable than ten computers ten years ago with no training.”
BAHARAK LEARNING CENTER
CAI and MSSRO developed Baharak Learning Center( BLC) in 2011 to provide trainings for teachers in the area who had trouble keeping up with new stateapproved curriculum and the latest teaching techniques. This new computer training program will help these schools build capacity and keep in step with advancement
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