Returnees and Their Enrollment in the Schools in Afghanistan

Written by: Ferishta Sahak

In recent years, many refugees have returned to their country. Some returnee girls who return in the middle of the education year might face problems during enrollment in schools.

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked about this issue with some girls, their parents and a headmaster.

Fatima, a resident of Qarabagh district, Kabul province says: “when I returned to my village, I enrolled in school but I was left back from the lessons. I tried my best to learn but unfortunately, I failed in the final exam and now I am very disappointed.”

Marwa, a resident of Bamyan province says: “when I returned, I had no education documents and they did not accept me to enroll in the school. I lost my one-year study.”

Causes:

Fatima says: “the education year of my host country differs with my native country. As  I returned in the middle of the education year of Afghanistan, I was not able to learn all the lessons in a few months.”

Marwa says: “when I referred to the school office for enrollment, they wanted my education documents but I had not taken them with me.”

Solution:

A man, a resident of Herat province says: “when I returned from migration, I wanted to enroll my daughters in the school. As I had all education documents, I faced no problems during the enrollment.”

Another man, Nazir says: “when I came back to Afghanistan, I had not taken my daughters’ education documents with me. I wanted to enroll them in a school but the school office sent my daughters to the education department to find out that in which class they might be qualified to be enrolled. They passed the qualifying exam and now they continue their school.”

Feriba Farhat, a headmaster in Qarabagh Highschool says: “if returnees want to enroll in school, at the beginning we check their documents and enroll them as temporary students and at the end of the education year, they would share the exam. If they do not have education documents, we guide them to the education department. There they would fill a form for a qualification exam. After passing the exam, we enroll them in school and we would prepare new education documents for them.”