Millions of textbooks donated and paid for by the United States and foreign donors meant for schools in Afghanistan never make it to their destinations. In fact, about one third of the school books meant for the 2008 school schedule were never delivered to the provinces. Without these academic resources, Afghan educators find it difficult to provide an adequate educational agenda and parents may need to purchase textbooks if they are not provided, which often deters families from sending their children to school. Although Afghan schools have also received many donated textbooks, most are in poor condition. The Afghan Education Ministry states that textbooks should last for at least three years, but most of the donated books lack this durability.
The problem of the missing textbooks began with printing delays due to editing errors, causing certain textbook orders to be canceled. One of these errors involved pages being printed upside down. Such mistakes resulted in the rejection of more than one million books by the Afghan government.
An additional hindrance to the delivery of textbooks is distribution. Currently there are about 500,000 books in Pakistan awaiting allocation to Afghan schools. On top of this there are another 20 million books sitting in warehouses in Kabul. Local safety issues and a lack of distribution planning account for this backlog.
The Afghan Education Ministry has sought help in getting these books to where are they are needed by turning to the U.S. military. U.S. forces managed to deliver 13.5 million books in July 2008 at a cost of $7 million. Yet even with U.S. assistance, many of these books still did not make it to schools until students were beginning their final exams three months later.
Although these issues with textbook quality and distribution exist, many teachers and students are still grateful for the arrival of any textbooks at all.
-Diana Fazely, Kyle Kuersten
(AP Photo-Rafiq Maqbool)
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