Channel 4 - News from Afghanistan blog - Afghan classes: the school with 18,000 pupils

Afghan classes: the school with 18,000 pupils

16 November 2006, 3:05 PM

Next time you hear people wondering about class sizes in the UK consider this: Habbibia High School in western Kabul, probably one of the best state (free) schools in the country, has 18,000 boys in classes which average around the 60 mark.

In better times when classes were more reasonable, a little boy called Hamid Karzai came here to school - now he is the western-backed president of the country.

They swarm in across three shifts per day - 6,000 early to late morning; 6,000 more across the middle of the day and - well yes you can do the rest I'm sure.
Anyhow, chucking out time is quite a sight - the headmaster stands around ticking anybody off for dropping litter or cycling in school grounds. Bit terrifying for our stalwart translator - back to see his old HM who used to beat him.

Out back - a tented village to try and accommodate numbers swelled by returning refugees from Pakistan. More than 4 million have come back - one of the biggest movements of humanity on the planet in recent years - and many have chosen Kabul.

You see kidcatchers wandering around the perimeter, skulking in ditches with sticks to leap out and belt anybody trying to skive off home.

And this is good, by Afghan standards. Even so, Habbibia remains desperately short of every possible, imaginable thing that a school can be short of.

Down south life's more tricky. A number of head teachers have been beheaded - their heads hacked off in front of their classes on at least one occasion in recent months. It's the Taliban, or their allied militias, terrifying anybody from being involved in education.

Suffice to say, more than 250 schools have been burned down. Our team actually caught the Taliban in the act of setting fire to one in Helmand Province (where the British army are). They went back there three months later, to find it still a burned-out hulk, a total wreck. Inside, former pupils were using it as a shelter in which to smoke heroin and encourage other pupils to try it for the first time.

Their teacher? Nearby, standing about tending the fields - trying to make ends meet as a farm labourer.

True, some schools appear to enjoy real protection from British soldiers and we shall see that in action too, this evening. But given the tiny number of foreign soldiers here, the number of schools they are really able to protect, has to be pretty limited.

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Readers' comments

Posted by Macca13 on 16 November 2006, 3:26 PM

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Posted by Macca13 on 16 November 2006, 3:27 PM

Interesting stuff. Is the MoD letting you do your own thing, or are you on a tight leash?

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Posted by frasemci on 16 November 2006, 5:46 PM

All the reports from Afghanistan have been superb. As someone who did the overland 'hippy trail' in 1974, I fell in love with the country and it's people. It saddens me terribly, what has happened there. Certainly, it looks like there are definite improvements post-taliban, but it all seems so knife-edge. What is really disheartening, is that so many solutions are just patently obvious, but our govt. and america's seem incapable of doing the right thing. Unemployed Northern alliance? Give them jobs in public works, building housing and infrastructure. Opium? Buy it at source, and then over a period bring in alternatives. Spraying, besides poisoning other crops and contaminating the water, leaves a farmer with no money and a family to feed; ideal taliban fodder.

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Posted by AndrewPeck on 16 November 2006, 7:36 PM

Having watched the article this evening on channel 4 news, and read comments here, I have a question. How do I teach in Afghanistan? I have worked in similar geography (Qinghai, Northern China) all be it without the war, and would happily consider a similar role in Afghanistan. I have no money to buy books, or pay for the reconstruction of schools. If I did, I would. But I can teach. How do I get there?

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Posted by AndrewPeck on 16 November 2006, 7:38 PM

Having seen this evening's broadcast I feel I have something to offer. I have no money, otherwise I would quite happily turn round and pay for schools to be rebuilt, however I have taught in geographically similar areas (Qinghai and Inner Mongolia, China). How do I teach in Afghanistan? It must be possible.

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Posted by Aara on 5 December 2006, 5:17 PM

Very late comment, but just discoverd the channel 4 news blog after being an avid watcher of channel 4 news. In my opinion the only news channel worth watching. Just want to add how heart breaking the situation as you report it seems to be. I was never a supporter of the war, as war as we only too often witness, does not get rid of the deep seated problems. Please keep up your excellent reporting on places like Afghanistan/ Palestine/Iraq and not forgetting Kashmir and Chechnya...there is no bliss in ignorance.

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