Afghan girls who study online now have another worry: Are their diplomas valid?
Farhiya is a 19-year-old in Kabul. She had been in the 9th grade at a public school when she and hundreds of thousands of other girls were forced to stay home after the Taliban regained power. “The Taliban takeover, the closure of schools, and this sudden change that took away many opportunities from me caused severe depression,” she tells Zan Times. “But in March 2023, my friends informed me about an online school called Gawharshad Begum, and I immediately joined it.”
Since the Taliban had kept promoting girls in public schools to higher grades without them attending classes in public schools in 2021 and 2022, Farhiya went into grade 11 when she resumed her education. She spends three to four hours a day attending classes on her smartphone and computer through Google Meet and expects to graduate from the 12th grade in January 2025. Farhiya sees online education as her only opportunity, despite the uncertainty regarding the validity of its certificates for female students.
Online schooling has its challenges. “The cost of the internet is one of my biggest problems,” says Farhiya. “I use wifi but sometimes it’s slow, and the audio cuts in and out. Or I can’t join classes due to power outages.” She also finds hours sitting in front of a computer or staring at a phone screen to be tiring. In contrast, in-person education used to allow direct contact with teachers, which helped in her learning, she notes.
Farhiya’s father, Younos, 50, supports his nine-member family with his job, a clerk at a private company. Despite the financial pressures on their household, he allocates about 2,000 afghani per month for Farhiya’s internet. Younos is pleased that his daughter can continue her education, saying, “We cut down on food and daily necessities so we pay for her internet and let her attend her classes.”
On August 14, 2024, during a live program on Ariana News TV in Afghanistan, a host asked Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, about girls’ schooling, which ends with the sixth grade. After laughing, he said that the Taliban are not against girls’ education within the framework of Islamic law, and that girls could study in religious schools. “Girls are allowed to study from first to sixth grade, but for now, grades above that, including middle and high schools and universities, are closed,” he added. “The Islamic Emirate has not passed a law that says schools will remain closed permanently.”
The impact of three years of closure is severe. The latest UNESCO reports show that the Taliban have deprived 1.4 million girls in Afghanistan of educational opportunities. To find an alternative path for girls’ education, some education activists in Afghanistan established online schools.The number of girls able to join those schools is unknown but because of the cost of internet, it’s likely a small share of the girls who should be in classrooms.
Zohal is an 8th grade student at an online school called Azadi. The 15-year-old lives with her poor family in Balkh province and wants to get a scholarship to study psychology after graduation. Before the Taliban took over, Zohal’s father was a doctor working for an international NGO. Now, he is unemployed and Zohal’s mother has to support their seven-member family. “We live in an old mud house inherited from my grandfather. We can’t even afford to paint the house. Our economic condition is poor,” Zohal explains. “My mother covers my internet expenses with her sewing work. My parents always say they will do whatever it takes to fund my education, even if we have nothing to eat.”
Like Farhiya, Zohal worries about how to continue her education after she graduates from grade 12: “Despite continuing my studies online, my biggest concern is that we’ll be given certificates that are only recognized by the online school itself, but will not be accepted inside or outside the country. If that happens, I won’t be able to get a scholarship or a job, and they won’t allow me to take the university entrance exam in Afghanistan, either.”
For this report, Zan Times interviewed 10 students who attend online schools in Kabul, Nangarhar, Balkh, Herat, and Ghazni provinces. Eight expressed concerns about the validity of their graduation certificates from online schools, while the remaining two said that escaping from depression and being homebound was more important than having a certificate, at least for now. Nine students complained about the high cost of the internet required to attend online classes, while also noting other challenges include poor internet speeds, power outages, and a lack of direct communication with teachers.
Online school administrators and teachers explain that they continue to educate students, often without financial or moral support from international organizations or foreign governments. In Balkh province, 22-year-old Kamela works at a public primary school and teaches at an online school in her free time. She had been in her fourth year of science at Balkh University when the Taliban closed the universities to women. She spent nine months learning how to be a remote educator from an organization called Intertek and now teaches English, German, Turkish, and calligraphy to students at the Azadi online school. She doesn’t get paid for her work: “I volunteer at this school and pay for my internet and expenses with my salary as a primary teacher. We are in financial difficulty, but I want to support the girls of this country by teaching them as much as I can.”
Kamela hopes that all Afghan girls will one day be able to continue their education without restrictions so they can contribute to the rebuilding of their country.
Selma has been involved in online learning for two years. “In 2022, I realized that the Taliban do not intend to reopen secondary and high schools for girls so I decided to establish an online school,” she says. That school is Gawharshad Begum. “The teachers work voluntarily, and the students continue their education for free.” After being open for a year, the school has enrolled 550 female students, who are taught at different times during the day by 50 women who have high school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees.
Students and teachers find Selma’s school through social media. “After reviewing students’ previous academic records, we place them in appropriate grades,” explains Selma. “The curriculum follows the system of the Ministry of Education from the Republic era, and all school subjects are part of the syllabus. We have three to four hours of lessons daily, but they are held at different times since our teachers are busy with their daily activities and offer their free time for this.” Those online classes and exams are managed through platforms like Google Meet and Zoom, while students can ask questions and submit homework through WhatsApp and Telegram groups.
Though Gawharshad Begum has been operational for a year, it hasn’t graduated students yet. The administrators and teachers of online schools admit they aren’t sure whether anyone will recognize their diplomas. Like so many problems in Afghanistan, immediate concerns – teaching girls – outweigh such longer-term issues.
Selma acknowledges the students’ concerns about the validity of their graduation certificates: “I, too, am worried about this because the certificates are only recognized by our school and not by the Ministry of Education. These certificates may not be valid for admission to foreign or online universities.” Because of challenges such as internet costs, slow connections, and frequent power cuts, teachers record lessons and share them in groups, allowing students time to catch up. “I understand the financial struggles of the students,” adds Selma. “Even I can barely afford my own internet expenses, which I pay with my teaching salary. Most students face the same issues because we have no financial support.”
Farhiya is anxious that her online graduation certificate may not help her fulfill her dream of studying medicine: “I hope that when I graduate, they will provide a certificate that is valid and useful. This certificate should be recognized both in Afghanistan and internationally so that students can use it to build a brighter future.” Farhiya notes that she wasn’t thinking about that issue when she first joined the online school – she just wanted to escape being housebound. Now, it has become yet another worry.
Sana Atef is the pseudonym for a freelance journalist in Afghanistan. The names in this article have been changed for security reasons.
