AFGHANISTAN: Demobilised officers to train as teachers

KABUL, 25 August 2004 (IRIN) - The Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (ANBP) have joined forces to identify qualified military officers, who have entered the Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration programme (DDR) to fill vacant teaching posts. The DDR process helps soldiers to fit back into society through training and employment. “It is good to have these officers who have witnessed war in Afghanistan,” Denise Duclaux, ANBP's public information officer told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday. “These officers are able to teach a new generation not only basic skills necessary but also about Afghanistan’s past and how they can create a new future for themselves.” There had been a misconception that the DDR programme was only offering jobs that involved physical labour, she said, pointing out that the programme offered some opportunities to educated officers and soldiers. Since the interim government came to power in Afghanistan in late 2001, some 47,000 officers have been demobilised from the Afghan defence ministry. The majority of these former soldiers have not found work. “I graduated from school before my military training and I am very enthusiastic to be hired as a teacher - it would solve my economic problems and I could serve my community,” Ghulam Mohammad a 38-year-old ex-officer told IRIN, noting that he had worked in the army for 15 years. Jan Ali, another ex-officer, said that he was happy to be offered such a job because he knew that he could receive a better salary than before and he could provide for his family. “I want to be safe and I want to go home every night to be with my family.” “Some 600 teacher training places have been identified for ex-officers and no previous experience is required if the officer has completed 12th grade of schooling," Wahab Sulaimankhil, an education ministry official, told IRIN. The ministry had designed a five-month teacher training course for the former officers to be run in Kabul, he added. According to ANBP, those who qualify to become trainee teachers will receive US $50 per month and a $4 per day subsistence allowance. Upon qualifying, the new teachers will receive an additional grant of $200 and a teaching job at a school close to their home. They would be paid a salary of $70 a month and three months later; the teachers would receive a second grant of $300 upon successful completion of the first school term, the ANPB official noted. The total number of officers and soldiers demobilised in both the pilot phase and main phase of the DDR programme is 13,381.