By Susan Domowitz
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Afghan children starting the new school year in Afghanistan March 23 will have textbooks in their hands, thanks to cooperation between the United States, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), and non-governmental organizations.

According to UNICEF, 1.5 million Afghan children will return to school March 23. The date marks more than just the beginning of a new school year; it also marks a turning point in the lives of Afghans. During the years of Taliban control in Afghanistan, women teachers were prohibited from working, girls were denied the opportunity for an education, and schools suffered physical damage from the fighting.

Over four million textbooks -- enough for each student to have his or her own books -- are being printed in the region and distributed across Afghanistan. The 175 titles, in both Dari and Pashto, cover the complete spectrum of school subjects for grades 1-12, including math, algebra, geometry, language, reading, writing, science, health, social studies, civics, geography, physics, chemistry, geology and biology.

According to Chris Brown, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project manager for the Afghan textbook project, by the time the school year is in full swing, nearly nine million textbooks will have been printed and distributed in Afghanistan.

"The Afghan Interim Authority Ministry of Education made it a top priority to let nothing stand in the way of their goal of having the maximum number of Afghan children back in school, with textbooks and supplies, by March 23," Brown says.

The books were printed with a $6.5 million grant to the University of Nebraska from USAID. UNICEF has undertaken the distribution of the books in Afghanistan. Based on a curriculum designed by the University of Nebraska, and used in Afghanistan for the last twenty years, the textbooks have been revised to reflect the new political realities in Afghanistan.

A group of dedicated Afghan educators and NGOs, working in coordination with UNICEF, worked for the last two years to produce a new curriculum, and actually developed new textbooks for the Dari, Pashto languages and for math for grades 1 to 6, Brown notes.

But the sudden defeat of the Taliban, and the establishment of the Afghan Interim Authority in December gave a new urgency to re-opening Afghan schools and providing Afghan children with textbooks. The Ministry of Education, faced with the necessity of producing millions of textbooks in a matter of weeks, opted to use the UNO curriculum for this school year. Afghan educators participated in a thorough review of the books to ensure that all war-related content was removed.

Tom Gouttierre, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a participant in the textbook project, says it was an effort to "jump-start" Afghanistan's education process after years of devastation. "In terms of the importance for Afghanistan's future," he says, "this moment comes at a most critical juncture."

Sixty thousand teachers are returning to school on March 23, and USAID and UNICEF have been conducting teacher training sessions throughout Afghanistan. In addition, UNICEF is supplying 6,000 metric tons of school supplies, including chalkboards, chalk, pencils, and school bags to Afghan teachers and students across the country.

"Nothing more quickly and more thoroughly demonstrates a return to hope and opportunity than for the children to get back into school," Brown says. "It's the most immediate and tangible thing that this interim administration can do within its short mandate to reassure the Afghan people on a massive scale that this is a time of change, a time of hope, and a time of opportunity."