Abstract

Education in Afghanistan is a highly politicised field which has been going through a radical change since the return of the Taliban in 2021. Although the focus remains on the ban on female education, what is at stake here is education at large, which is becoming more and more complicated under the current regime. Taliban’s approach to education concentrates on three policies: (1) official bans, (2) curriculum change, and (3) proliferation of madrassas for boys and girls. Taliban have already banned courses like “Civic Education,” while introducing courses like “Emirate Studies” and ordering teachers not to teach Western values like human rights, democracy and even national symbols of Afghanistan. According to resources, Taliban’s curriculum change for primary level (Grades 1-6) is complete, while that for the intermediate level (Grades 7-9) is ongoing. It has also been announced that work is underway for a single curriculum for madrassas and schools at the primary level. It means that soon there will be no difference between schools and madrassas. This is line with Taliban’s policy of establishing “3-10 madrassas in every district,” which has exploded the number of madrassas in Afghanistan from 5.000 in 2021 to 21.000 in 2025. All these developments point to a process of “madrassafication of education” which is a multi-faceted issue involving; (1) establishment of madrassa education as the only legitimate way to employment and receiving aid; (2) indoctrination of new generations with Taliban’s ideology; (3) reproduction of a system of “governance by mullahs;” and (4) exploitation of education as a tool for regime survival. As a scholar working on politics of education in Afghanistan in the last fifteen years, I intend to analyse the ongoing “madrassafication” process in this paper which is a work-in-progress where I will be including new data as it comes up in due course.