Coaching class- a new hope for married women
Schools were reopened after three months of winter vacations. It was a cloudy day in Bamyan and the weather was still colder than in other parts of Afghanistan. It was the fifth day that students started a new class with new opportunities and challenges. Zahra Anjuman was also one of these students.
She is 23, married woman, studying at class 12th of SCA Coaching class in Yakawolang district, 80 km away from center of Bamyan.
I joined this Coaching class from class 8th and now only a year is left to be graduated. Says Zahra with proud.
Zahra is not alone in this class. Among her 11 classmates that all are married, her three years old child- Mustafa is also there, setting quit besides his mother and steering at students and the teacher in the class. Zahra wants SCA to make a nursery for their children in class, so mothers take part in class with peace of mind and other women that left studies to take care of their children will also be able to join back school.
I left school when I was at 7th class and got married. The new responsibilities as a wife and a daughter in law did not allow me to continue my secondary education. Thanks to SCA Coaching class that provided me with the opportunity to be graduated of school. With a big smile on her face, adds Zahra Anjuman.
The SCA Coaching classes starts afternoon, so the women have enough time to clean house and prepare food for lunch. At it is the best time for them to study
Surprisingly with its beautiful nature Bamyan has unique and beautiful hearted people, more open and ready for development. Families support for the education of their children without discrimination. But it is the lack of facilities that prevents them.
I walk almost 30 minutes from home to get to school. We do not have any kind of public transportation in our district which limits our mobility. But I still feel lucky, because other classmates of mine come from areas that takes them couple of hours to walk.
Zahra believes that the teachers of SCA Coaching classes are the best and experienced teachers of the public school that the Coaching classes locates in. They not only follow the education curriculum of the country, but also conduct extra sessions to give students the basic understanding of the subjects first. And it is the same case with English language. Students that are not having the basic knowledge of English have to study the advance level books because of the mandates of Afghan education curriculum.
Not only Zahra but almost all students prefer the SCA Coaching classes to the public school classes. One reason for that is the number of students are two to three times less than ordinary school classes. You find 10 to 20 students in a coaching class while in ordinary school classes the number of students are more than 40.
I study hard. I want to do my higher education in the field of Social Science after completing school, as other women graduated last year.
In 2015, 17 women were graduated from SCA Coaching class in Yakawolang. Nine of them took part in university admission examination, among them seven got free admission in public universities.
SCA Coaching classes are located inside “Lese Naswaan Markazi” of Yakawolang district. Women in 9th, 10th and 12th grades are studying here. SCA Education Programme is currently supporting 22 Coaching Classes in Afghanistan with around 300 students. The plan is to increase number of students to 485 by end of 2016.
pictures: Faiz Ahmad Sidaq