“When I came back to teach, many women came back to school”
“If I can become something and do something, so can they”
How two women are bringing hope to the next generation of girls in their village.
If you visit Salima* and Khatereh’s* school, you’ll see classrooms filled with girls, boys, and women, ready for a day of learning. You’ll find an open library, see girls hard at work in the science laboratory, and hear students asking their teachers questions. A few years ago, you would have found something very different.
When Salima and Khatereh were younger, school was not a friendly environment for girls. Having no female teachers in their village meant that many families wouldn’t allow their daughters to study beyond the third or fourth grade. And even girls who were allowed to continue attending were often let down by the quality of teaching– they would get to the end of their schooling and feel like they still knew hardly anything at all.
“When we asked [our teachers] questions, their level of knowledge was really low,” Khatereh recalls. “They would say, ‘Oh, just look in the book and you’ll see’, or ‘I’ll tell you tomorrow’, hoping that we would forget our question.” Many of their teachers came an hour or two late, or didn’t show up at all.
These problems are encountered by girls in many villages across Afghanistan. That’s why IAM runs the Female Teacher Education Project (FTEP), training young women from these villages to be the change for other girls in their communities. IAM-trained female teachers are bringing high-quality education to their villages and increasing opportunity for girls to study.
Salima had dreamed of becoming a teacher. “The position of a teacher in my district is a very influential one, and they can further develop people,” she says. But as an orphan, it seemed unlikely that she would ever achieve her dream and become a role model for other girls in her village.
“In Afghanistan, it’s very difficult for someone who doesn’t have a father or mother to go somewhere with their life,” Salima says, blinking back tears as she explains that her father was martyred before she was born and her mother died from heart problems when she was just ten years old. After she lost both of her parents, Salima moved in with her older sister and her brother-in-law – Khatereh’s parents – who raised her as one of their own. Her brother-in-law was always supportive of her studying. “He always encourages us that everywhere we go, we should try to learn something, to put something new into our minds,” says Salima. “Knowledge is like a river – however much we learn, it never ends.”
It was this open-mindedness that enabled Salima and Khatereh to take part in FTEP. When Rahima, Liaison Officer and Dean of Students, and other FTEP staff came to her village to invite young women to be part of the five-year teacher training programme, many parents refused to send their daughters to the city. Just this one family gave permission for their girls to attend.
Salima was shy and nervous when she first arrived at FTEP. “She didn’t talk much, and if I asked her a question, she would blush and wouldn’t be able to answer, or tears would come into her eyes,” says Rahima. “Now, there is such a big difference!”
Today, Salima sits before us as a confident, strong young woman – speaking knowledgeably on different teaching methodologies and how she uses them to help her students learn. Although many people in her village spoke badly of both her and Khatereh for going to study in the city, they gradually realised that these young women had returned bringing knowledge and skills that would benefit their entire community.
When Salima and Khatereh first started teaching, many of their female students were scared to speak or ask questions – just like Salima had been. “I tried to teach them not to be afraid, saying, ‘You can do this! You have the courage to do this!’ I acted normally with them, like my teachers [at FTEP] did with me.” says Salima. “When people have self-confidence, they will be passionate to learn different things.”
And it’s not just young girls who are now attending school and gaining confidence because of Khatereh and Salima. Women who were made to drop out when they were younger are being given permission from their husbands to come back and study, too! “When I came back to teach, many women came back to school,” says Khatereh. “Even those who already had two or three or four children came back, because it wasn’t a male teacher anymore.”
Khatereh radiates confidence. The passion she has brought to the classroom is now being mirrored by her students. Khatereh says that the principal at the time was quick to acknowledge her effect on the school, saying things like, “If you’re not here, all of the students are out in the halls instead of in their classrooms.” Students would also echo these sentiments, saying, “If [Khatereh] is not here, I’m leaving. But if she’s here, I’ll stay and study.”
These FTEP-trained women have improved learning beyond the classroom, too. Salima has reopened the library and created a schedule for students and teachers to use it, got students studying science in the laboratory, and helped students learn to use computers as well. And what’s really exciting is that other teachers in the school are beginning to change their methods too.
“Little by little, [other teachers’] ideas have changed… they encouraged me and began working with me in these areas, saying, ‘this is really good for the development of the students, it’s really helpful,’” says Salima.
FTEP also ensured that their graduates had access to the internet for their first two years back in their villages, which meant that Salima and Khatereh could use their new computer skills to research different teaching ideas and find answers to questions their students had if they didn’t know them.
Against all odds, Salima is now acting principal of her school. People who used to look down on her for being an orphan and think badly of her for moving to the city are now coming to her for advice and sending their daughters and wives to her school. She leads by example, and is demonstrating the value of different ways of thinking, teaching and learning.
“Everyone who sees me at school says that I am an example, and I tell my students to see me as an example – because if I can become something and do something, so can they,” she says.
Today, Salima and Khatereh continue to work to improve education in their village, and two of their former students are now studying to be teachers with FTEP, too. Gradually people are changing their thinking – students are learning to participate in their own learning and to learn from each other. “I say, ‘Here, we can help to solve one another’s problems. This isn’t the place to say who is good and who is bad, who is higher and who is lower.’ I have a different kind of thinking, and little by little, [others] have started to see things that way too.”
Salima and Khatereh are just two of 15 young women who studied with FTEP in the first cycle of the project. Today, 13 of those women are working in village schools, reaching over 3,000 students in total, and changing their communities in the way they teach and interact every day.
*Names Changed
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