The findings of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) shows that the Afghan Ministry of Education (MoE) is still grappling with a shortage of professional teachers despite its pledge to respond to a number of recommendations and a reform agenda to improve the quality of education through hiring professional and skilled teachers.
 
MEC officials said that there are still serious vulnerabilities in the Ministry of Education in terms of corruption that undermine public confidence in the institution.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has confirmed that only 20 percent of the teachers have received any higher education.
 
According to the MEC, since 2017 the Ministry of Education has managed to implement only 70 recommendations out of 113 recommendations suggested by the MEC to help overcome issues of professional teachers and curricula for schools.
 
“We are still grappling with the lack of professional teachers, second is the issue of curriculum, we still do not have a good curriculum,” said Maiwand Rouhani, the head of the MEC.
 
Based on the MEC findings, 8 of 10 teachers have not  had higher education and the necessary experience for teaching.
 
“We found that the Ministry of Education has changed into a market for employment, every strongman and powerful figure tries to appoint their own desirable people in the structure of the education ministry,” said Masooma Yaqoubi, MEC researcher.
 
The Ministry of Education has said that 16 percent of the teachers have higher education degrees, 57 percent have semi-higher education degrees (such as diplomas from two-year programs) and some others have no higher education.
 
“The reason is that the professional teachers can't go to the remote regions, so we use the expertise of those teachers who are the natives of a region,” said Najiba Arian, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education.