This March, USAID’s Building Education Support Systems for Teachers (BESST) project held a workshop in Kabul to develop an accelerated learning program for teachers.  The accelerated learning program will offer an opportunity for existing teachers who have completed grades 6 through 11 to study and gain the knowledge required to complete a secondary education and, eventually, enroll in a teacher training college.

The workshop participants developed test questions for subjects taught in grades 7 to 12.  These test questions will be used in exams to determine whether teachers have the required knowledge of secondary school subjects to qualify for entry into teacher training colleges.  Workshop organizers optimistically expected to generate 3,000 questions from the workshop, but ended up developing 7,000 test questions.  Organizers attributed the success to excellent support from the Ministry of Education (MoE) Teacher Education Department and the hard work of the 62 participants. The participants included officials from the MoE Curriculum Department, teacher training colleges, high school teachers, and university professors.  Participants worked together in teams to check the accuracy and clarity of the questions.

“This workshop reached the target and now there are enough questions for different subjects for grades 7-12. We really appreciate BESST’s cooperation to develop such workshops and trainings,” commented an experienced staff member from the MoE Curriculum Department.  With the support of USAID, the MoE is taking steps toward developing a system to assess the knowledge and skills of high school teachers.