News - Afghanistan

Sixty-three university teachers have graduated with a Masters degree from Burhanuddin Rabbani Education University, a great boost to the improvement of education in Afghanistan, the chancellor Amanullah Hamidzai said Sunday.

The two-year Masters programme was launched by the USAID in Kabul in 2008 to boost the abilities of the Afghan university instructors.

"The Masters programme has been very useful and successful. The programme is only for the Rabbani Education University instructors," Hamidzai told reporters in a tour of the US Embassy with representatives of the university.

"The programme has tackled the problem of going abroad to earn a master degree for the instructors of the Rabbani's Education University. This is a good and effective program," deputy manager of the Higher Education project in Afghanistan Wahid Omer said, adding that improved capacity of teachers is evident and that some have already received promotions.

Some of the graduates said they had brought changes to their teaching methods and content.

"The Masters programme is of international standards and set with high quality. We can use more modern information and improve lessons in the future," a teacher from the Baghlan Branch of Education University and Masters graduate Aminullah Fetrat said.

"I graduated from this programme in 2009 and it was very effective in my academic life. It had remarkable changes in my teaching efforts," Education University teacher Zakia Sharifyan said.

According to the university officials, only those instructors stationed in Kabul and a few other provincial branches who have grade averages higher than 75 percent are eligible for the Masters.