: : Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce & Industries

3 Higher Education Institutes Registered with Ministry of Higher Education

Over the last few years the Afghan government has authorized the private sector to play its role in the field of education and to extend contemporary educational facilities for students all over the country.

In this connection a number of private education institutions have already been registered and some new institutes have been licensed in recent months. Karwan, Salam & Tabish are the ones of that received licenses in the field of different courses. The license was given at an impressive ceremony held in the Ministry of Higher Education that was chaired by the acting Minister of Higher Education Professor Usman Baburi. The ceremony was attended by academicians, senators, parliamentarians, government officials and a large number of students.

A number of prominent personalities delivered brief speeches during the ceremony.Acting Education Minister Professor Usmani said that 22 higher educational institutes are functioning in the public sector whereas a similar number of institutions have been registered in the private sector. Six of the institutions in the private sector are outside Kabul and operating in the other major cities of the country whereas the rest are in Kabul. He assured the private sector institutions of continued support from the government and expressed the hope that they will continue to expand all over the country and at the same time deliver a higher quality of education to their students.

M. Qurban Haqjo the Chief Executive Officer of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) mentioned the importance of the private sector for the country's economy.He briefly outlined the various challenges faced by the private sector of the country and requested the Afghan government and international community to deal with these issues so that the growth of the economy can be accelerated.He believes the most important means of progress was the extension of long term financial and technical support to private sector institutions for their establishment or expansion as this area was currently being ignored by the international community and the financial institutions working in the country.

During the ceremony, said The Director of Academic Affairs at the Ministry of Higher Education, the educational curricula of private institutions are narrowly focused on a number of disciplines and expressed the desire that they should expand into other academic areas like Physical Sciences and Agriculture as the country is in need of personnel trained in these areas.

Higher education is a critically important area for every individual of the younger generation and urged them to concentrate on acquiring professional education and skills so that they are in a position to lead the country in future. Said Senator Sher Mohammad Akhund.

He further emphasized that the private sector institutions of higher education were concentrated in the capital and urged existing and future institutions to expand towards the remote provinces of the country particularly those in the south and the south west. The senator congratulated the ministry for their good performance and thanked the private sector institutions for their initiatives and their involvements in the crucially important the “education sector.”

Delegations of the three private sector institutions addressed their speeches that were given licenses on the occasion. Mr. Abdul Shakoor Mahjur on behalf of Karwan assured the audience as well as the Afghan government that the Institute will focus on the extension of quality education along with introducing updated educational facilities, technical equipment and other academic material that are required by the student community of the country. Mr. Mahjur requested the cooperation of the Ministry of Higher Education and the government with private sector institutions and expressed the hope of good coordination between them in future.

Towards the end of the brief ceremony licenses were distributed to the three new institutes after which a brief photo-session took place. The event was recorded by a number of TV channels who telecasted highlights of the occasion in their subsequent news broadcasts.