Low-cost computing gets professional for Afghan school

Low-cost thin client computing technology has helped a women's business school in Kandahar, Afghanistan bulk up its IT offering, while keeping energy and maintenance low.

By Nicole Kobie, 17 Dec 2007 at 12:48

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While some developing countries race ahead with technology - think China, India and Vietnam - others risk falling even further behind.

Because of this, programmes like One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and their XO laptop device - and its rivals, such as the Asus EEE PC - are being snapped up by countries around the world to improve their IT skills.

One such country is Afghanistan. Telecoms companies are rolling out wireless access, OLPC is sending out devices, yet basic education is impossible in some regions. A country in flux since its creation, Afghanistan's hundreds of years of wars and political instability have lead to years of economic deprivation. Rebuilding - indeed, building - a modern infrastructure for such a place is no easy task, made all the more difficult by cultural barriers, poor levels of education and ongoing violence.

However, while low-cost laptops are perfect for helping children learn the basics, Ehsan Ullah needs business-class machines to teach his adult students.

Ullah is the director at the Afghan Canadian Community Centre (ACCC), a year-old school for 200 students, predominantly women, in conservative Kandahar. A hundred more have applied to study, so the school desperately needs more computers.

The Afghan Canadian Community Centre

In Afghanistan, primary education is free for both genders - assuming parents allow their children to attend or that students can manage to get to a school. In Kandahar, there are government schools available for young girls to attend, but they teach basic subjects - not those needed to get a job.

This is where the ACCC is different. Rather than teach the basics, it offers an adult education development programme - teaching a variety of subjects from business to politics, with a strong focus on IT. "For girls and women who need to go to work and get jobs, they need skills in computers," Ullah said. "ACCC is the only school in Kandahar area that offers these job-oriented training programs."

It's not easy. Despite being supported by the Canadian-based Afghan School Project funding programme, money is tight. IT instructors earn little. Equipment is hard to come by and power is an ongoing challenge.

Even with funding, internet access and educators at the ready, other obstacles remain: culture, religion and violence. "Kandahar is a deeply conservative and anti-women society, so it is very difficult finding adult female students to attend professional training centres like ACCC," said Ullah. "For a woman, getting education or working in an office is considered dishonourable for the family in Kandahar society."

Not all families are like this, he said, and some of the more progressive allow their daughters to be educated, but conflict remains. "As Kandahar is a very much male dominant society supported by Taliban and Al-Qaeda anti-woman mentality, it gets... risky for both the family that allow the women education to happen and those who provide education or work opportunities to the women."

Several months back, three students were attacked by motorcyclists. A student and her sisters were threatened and stopped when leaving the ACCC. A bus rented for a separate training project in Helmand province was sprayed with gunfire, killing the driver and injuring the students. The director of the Women Department in Kandahar, who Ullah has worked closely with, was killed last year. "Every girl student or a working woman has a story of getting hassled by goons who are let loose on the streets or get death threats from fanatic elements," said Ullah.