76
EDUCATION
Insecurity is primarily a rural obstacle for participation in education, and also the distance to or absence of educational facilities is almost entirely restricted to rural populations and is even by far the most important reason for the Kuchi.
Assuming that under normal circumstances two kilometres is an acceptable walking distance for primary-school students, only around half of Afghan households live within easy reach of primary education facilities: 54 percent within
two kilometres of boys primary schools and 48 percent within that range for girls primary education Figure 8.4. This would imply that some 2.5 million children in primary school age 7 to 12 years do not have access to school within two
kilometres distance. The percentage of households that have physical access to primary education within ive kilometres distance would be 69 percent for boys education and 60 percent for girls education. This corresponds to around 1.8
million children in primary school age.
Figure 8.4: Households within two kilometres distance from primary education facilities, by sex of student population, and by residence in percentages
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90 100
Urban Rural
Kuchi National
95
44 29
54 97
36 27
48
Boys Girls
Disparity of physical accessibility by residence is very large. Whereas almost all urban households live within acceptable walking distance from primary education facilities, in rural areas the corresponding percentages for households that
have, respectively, boys and girls primary education within two kilometres are only 44 and 36. The igures for Kuchi households are even far below that. Expanding the distance criterion to 5 kilometres would imply that of all rural primary
school age children, some 63 percent boys and 51 percent girls live within this distance from relevant education facilities. For Kuchi children – boys and girls alike – this would only be 42 percent, whereas for urban children virtually all can
reach school within ive kilometres.
8.3 Educational attainment
Educational attainment can be used as an indicator of the stock and quality of human capital within a country, and as a measure to assess the needs and establish policies for upgrading it. It also relects the structure and performance of the
education system and its accumulated impact on human capital formation. The internationally recommended indicator measures the percentage distribution of the population 25 and over by the number of years or highest level of schooling
completed UNESCO 2009.
77
EDUCATION
Table 8.3 shows that less than one quarter of the adult population 25 years and over in Afghanistan has any formal education. For men this is around one-third and for women only one-tenth. Overall, only 12 percent has more than
primary school excluding Islamic schooling, with the corresponding igures for males and females, respectively 19 and 4 percent.
Table 8.3: Population 25 years over, by sex, and by educational attainment
Educational attainment In thousands
In percentages Male
Female Total
Male Female
Total No education
2,682 3,572
6,254 64.5
90.3 77.1
Incomplete primary education 173
53 226
4.2 1.3
2.8 Completed primary education
405 109
513 9.7
2.7 6.3
Completed lower secondary education 206
36 242
5.0 0.9
3.0 Completed upper secondary education
399 67
466 9.6
1.7 5.7
Completed teachertechnical college 87
29 115
2.1 0.7
1.4 Completed university post graduate
110 18
128 2.6
0.5 1.6
Completed Islamic school 98
70 168
2.4 1.8
2.1 Total
4,159 3,955
8,113 100.0
100.0 100.0
Compared to the NRVA 2007-08, the share of persons 25 and over without any education has decreased with 5 percentage points from 82.5 percent, but the absolute number has remained the same at over 6 million people data
not shown here. On the other hand, the relative and absolute numbers of adults who completed primary, secondary and tertiary education have increased. The adult population with primary school completion increased with 0.6
percentage points from 5.7 percent and 82 thousand people; those with completed lower or upper secondary school
increased with 1.0 percentage point from 7.8 percent and 122 thousand persons, and the corresponding igures for those with completed tertiary education college or university are 1.8 percentage points from 1.2 percent and 151
thousand persons.
The most salient outcomes of the breakdown of educational attainment by age and sex Figure 8.5 is the very large difference between males and females. Except for the youngest age group 15-24, 10 percent or less of the female
population has completed any level of education. In the male population, on the other hand, up to age 60 a signiicant minority of at least 30 percent has done so. A second remarkable inding is the rapid expansion of the shares with
completed secondary or primary education in the population under 25, especially for women. The percentage with completed secondary education increased more than 50 percent between age groups 25-29 and 20-24 for men, and
even tripled for women. And the percentage with completed primary education doubled between age groups 20-24 and
15-19 for men, and almost tripled again for women. These results relect the large progression that has been made in education system in the decade before NRVA 2011-12.
78
EDUCATION
Figure 8.5: Population 15 years and over, by educational attainment, and by age, for a males and b females a. Males b. Females
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90 100
15 -19
20 -24
25 -29
30 -34
35 -39
40 -44
45 -49
50 -54
55 -59
60 -64
65 -69
70 -74
75+ No educa tion completed
Completed prima ry Completed seconda ry
Completed tertia ry 10
20 30
40 50
60 70
80 90
100
15 -19
20 -24
25 -29
30 -34
35 -39
40 -44
45 -49
50 -54
55 -59
60 -64
65 -69
70 -74
75+ No educa tion completed
Completed prima ry Completed seconda ry
Completed tertia ry
8.4 Literacy 8.4.1 Literacy in residential and gender perspective
Literacy generally denotes the ability to read and write and to use written words in everyday life. Literacy is one of the intended outcomes of education, as well as a measure of a person’s ability to function in society and his or her
potential for further intellectual growth and contribution to economic and socio-cultural development of society. The complementary illiteracy indicates the extent of need for policies and efforts in organizing adult literacy programmes and
quality primary education.
The adult literacy rate – referring to the population aged 15 and over – indicates the accumulated achievement of primary education and literacy programmes in providing basic literacy skills to the population. Table 8.4 indicates very
low adult literacy rates for Afghanistan, with 31 percent overall literacy in the population 15 years and over. It also shows pronounced differences by residence: in the urban population the adult literacy rate is more than twice as high as that in
the rural population 54 against 25 percent, whereas among the Kuchi adult literacy is as low as 7 percent.
Table 8.4: Adult literacy rate, by residence, and by sex; Gender equity indicators, by residence
Sex and gender equity indicators
Residence Total
Urban Rural
Kuchi
a. Sex
Male 68.7
39.1 13.2
45.4 Female
37.9 10.4
1.2 17.0
Both sexes 53.5
25.0 7.2
31.4
b. Gender equity indicators
Absolute difference 30.8
28.7 12.0
28.4 Gender parity index
0.55 0.27
0.09 0.37
