The Appeal came into being as a result of consultation between educators and artists on how to activate the international educational community to play their part in ensuring that Afghans have access to education despite the ongoing sociopolitical challenges.
The Appeal for educational institutions to offer their courses remotely is only an initial step and we foresee the idea developing organically and taking different shapes and routes as the educational community takes charge of their responsibility and call to action.
The Appeal also has embedded challenges from the onset, one being that the students may not speak the language courses are offered in and secondly, they may not have easy access to the internet.
That considered, an estimated 5% of Afghans have a Level-1 and Level-2 understanding of English, 2-5% of Urdu/Hindustani and to a smaller extent, Arabic, Russian, and the popular European languages. An estimated 6 million of the 40 million total population have access to the internet and roughly 30% are between the ages of 20-40, the age-range where they would pursue higher-education.
With all challenges considered, this one action enables millions of Afghans who have both access to the internet, the language proficiency and eagerness to learn and contribute to benefit from a global education access pathway.
Our Progress
- November 15, 2021 – 70+ signatories reached
- October 27, 2021 – Time magazine publishes a related story
- September 10, 2021 – 50 signatories reached
- September 5, 20201 – Two outreach volunteers on-boarded
- September 1, 2021 – CSU Northridge approves the Appeal to be distributed internally to faculty
- Aug 30, 2021 – Appeal launched with 10 signatories
Other Educational Initiatives
- UofPeople offers 1000 scholarships for Afghan students