Ambassador Addresses Colgate Community
Carolyn Godfrey
The Mid-York Weekly & Pennysaver
03/09/2006
Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan's Ambassador to
the United States, told members of the Colgate community last
night that over the past 30 years of turmoil the people of Afghanistan
didn't "ignore" the educational system, they "purposely
destroyed it."
The Ambassador was the featured speaker at a presentation
entitled "Networks of Knowledge Against the Networks of
Violence: The Case for Global Partnership."
Jawad explained that 69% of the women in his country
are unable to read and over 80% of the schools or libraries
have been either damaged or destroyed. Of the remaining schools
only 29% have roofs, he added.
"But despite all this, kids are going back
to school by the hundreds, even thousands," he said.
The desire to learn has grown to the point where
some schools are operating in three shifts to meet the challenge.
Acknowledging the importance of education, the Afghanistan government
now provides total financial support for students from kindergarten
through the college level.
Jawad added that his country is no longer just
a bridge of trade and opportunity but also a bridge to the international
community
"We feel it's important to invest in the
education of our people - for they are our future," he
said. "Our young people are eager to learn, very eager
to partner with that international community."
The presentation was held as part of "Education
and Development: Building Sustainable Systems of Higher Education
in Developing Countries," a three day conference on the
Colgate campus. One focus of the conference has been the role
American institutions can play in supporting educational systems
of developing nations, specifically Afghanistan.
With its Project Afghanistan initiative,
the University has taken an active part in the supporting Afghanistan's
educational programs. Since its founding in April 2005, the
initiative has redesigned the computer science curriculum at
Kabul University, conducted workshops on the changes, and continued
to develop course materials for the new curriculum under a grant
from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
