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Caption: Five Girls Who Became Teachers to Change Girls' Education in Afghanistan AGA KHAN FOUNDATION
STAGES
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Caption: Meet Suhila In Suhila's village, no girl has ever completed their 12th grade education, resulting in a severe lack of qualified female teachers.
Because of STAGES - Steps Towards Afghan Girls' Educational Success - funded by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), the Aga Khan Foundation has introduced new opportunities for girls' education and female teacher apprenticeship programmes to empower a new generation of Afghan women leaders.
Suhila is leading this change.
In 2013, the Aga Khan Foundation introduced community-based education (CBE) classes for girls in Suhila's village. Suhila was 11 when she enrolled in Class 1. Over the next three years, she earned a first position in Classes 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Due to high demand for the CBE classes, UNICEF established a set of additional Grade 1 CBE classes in 2016 and began searching for communtiy female teachers.
Demonstrating a clear commitment, desire, and passion for teaching, Suhila was selected by UNICEF and local shura members as a teacher for Class 1 students for the new CBE. She now teaches in the morning while continuing her studies in the afternoon.
Like Suhila, her students are becoming the first literate female members in their families.
"I am so happy that I now have this opportunity to teach girls who otherwise would not have an education. Thank you to the Aga Khan Foundation for providing me with such an opportunity," Suhila said.
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Caption: STAGES has supported more than 135,000 Afghan girls to go to school since 2013. Aga Khan Foundation
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Caption: Meet Samira Samira was one of only a handful of girls from her farming village to attend high school and enroll in an innovative teacher apprenticeship programme sponsored by the Aga Khan Foundation under STAGES.
Alongside other girls in grades 11 and 12, Samira was offered the opportunity to participate in an accelerated teacher training course in parallel to her studies.
Two years later, Samira graduated from the teacher apprenticeship programme, married and moved with her husband to a new village.
When she arrived in her new home, she found the community shura recruiting new teachers for a new community-based education class in their village. As one of only a few women in the village with teaching qualifications, Samira applied. After a written exam and successful classroom demonstration, Samira was selected to teach; a dream fulfilled.
She hopes to set an example for other girls in her village. "We need to continue our education to better serve our community, country, and world," Samira said.
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Caption: STAGES has benefited more than 6,000
Afghan teachers since 2013. Aga Khan Foundation
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Caption: Meet Nooria Nooria is 27 years old and has returned to the school where she once was a student to be a teacher under the STAGES programme.
She wants to let girls know that having children should never impede their education or career. As a mother of three, she says her family always supported her studies.
She is now an English teacher of Afghan girls in grades 6 and 7. Three months into teaching, Nooria finds herself using all of the knowledge and skills she learned from the teacher training programme suppported by the Aga Khan Foundation like paired reading, child-centred learning and collaborative team teaching.
When asked why we should invest in girls' education, Nooria said, "The education of girls is important because we need more female teachers, female doctors, and female organisers for our villages."
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Caption: STAGES has engaged more than 110,000 Afghan community members to improve girls' education since 2013. Aga Khan Foundation
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Caption: Meet Neela and Najia Neela and Najia are neighbours. They both come from rural, low-income, large farming families. Ever since graduating from high school, both Neela and Najia wanted to become teachers. But their income was insufficient to cover the £1.13 daily transport cost to the nearest Teacher Training College.
STAGES provided 31 teaching candidates like Najia and Neela with transport support from the Aga Khan Foundation's Flexible Response Fund (micro-grants) to remove daily barriers to education and teacher training.
Because they could now afford transport, both Najia and Neela were able to complete their training and graduated as teachers in 2015.
Neela (20 years old) is now teaching fourth grade students, enabling dozens of girls from her local community to attend school for the first time.
Najia (23 years old) is now teaching a class for disabled children. "I was so fortunate to receive support from the Aga Khan Foundation and STAGES to become a teacher. As I work with the disabled children, I am proud of myself for supporting these children and giving them a bright future," Najia said.
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Caption: STAGES has provided 803 micro-grants from its Flexible Response Fund to help remove barriers to girls' education and teacher training since 2013. Aga Khan Foundation
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Caption: Learn more at:
www.akdn.org/education Aga Khan Foundation
