Star Educational Society

Star Educational Society is a very popular name among the new generation in Kabul, the center of Afghanistan. It was established in 1998 in Quetta, Pakistan by a group of Hazara young men led by Mr. Atiq Nabi. It was exactly when the Taliban regime was ruling the whole country in Afghanistan. The time, when people were warned not to watch video tapes and foreign television channels received via satellite dishes. The situation was quite scary and harsh for all the people, especially for those who sought for learning English. Star continued to its services in Quetta and in 2004, while the situation wasn't still suitable enough in Afghanistan, a branch of it shifted to Kabul under the leadership of Mr. Ali Reza Yasa 'Genggis' and started offering a variety of language and further education knowledge. In 2006 Star acquired its independency in terms of administration. It is basically a privately-managed but a spiritually-supported-by-people educational organization that helps the young generation learn English professionally and fundamentally. Unlike the other private educational centers, Star is always overcrowded with countless students in different levels and timings. Star offers a wide range of English language courses for the students in different ages and in levels of, basic, junior senior, advanced and students who want to take TOEFL examination. The curriculum and the control of the organization is independently done by the managerial board and the teachers at Star and the it is restructured as if it were a business organization, but actually its vision statement is “JOIN US FOR A DIFFERENCE”.

All the teachers at Star are in young ages, energetic, highly-responsible and skillful in field of teaching English language. The teachers in some classes have the same ages as their students but they all have been selected for their high standard of classroom management skills and knowledge of teaching and training techniques. Star only employs teachers who have a proven record of success and are trustable enough to realize their great responsibly. Even though the timetable at Star, allows each students to come and study for an hour but the students will find the course efficient, the teachers friendly, effectively-working, and capable of responding to their particular learning requirements. Throughout their courses, the teachers put a lot of efforts preparing teaching plans and are supportive, understanding guide to the learning process who will monitor the progress and create opportunities for practice in a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere.. 

A group picture of some of the young instructors at Star Educational Society. 

The atmosphere at Star requires all the students not speak, but English and it is respectfully followed by every person, which as a former student in there, I think is one of the major efficient policies they have in their systematic method that helps the students learn faster and easier. And another characteristic I admire about Star managerial policies is that unlike the other educational centers in the Kabul city, Star restrictedly considers the religious and constitutional respect to any woman by men and any man by women in inside its territory.

The students who come to Star to graduate and learn English comprehensively from basic to Advanced level, would continue to follow the regular schedule “one hour/day” until two and half years. If a student follows to attend classes regularly, receive all the instructions and is a little more than lazy, I think he/she would be able to understand and speak English well within two and half years.

Star offers its services through three branches in not very desirable locations of Kabul city, but still the sincere and honest efforts they put in teaching, has gained them the reputation of being one of the best English language centers in the entire Kabul city. It has been sex years since the establishment of Star but the number of students now under the instruction in all three branches of Star is already about 8000, but this graph varies rapidly and largely as the students come from countryside in summer and winter vacations and go back. Furthermore, Star recently has established a high school which enrolls student up to 9^th grade this year and will be promoted to a full high school with admissions for up to 12th grade by next year. The number of student so far enrolled in Star high school is about 300.

A snapshot on teacher's day celebration.     The manager, instructor, and a brilliant student of Star

The system followed at Star is New American Streamline. It includes grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing and listening sections, but I believe it totally depends on how the teachers apply the contents of the books, and the materials they provide daily. As I experienced myself, everything was perfectly done but there was a little less focus on listening and visual parts “movies and videos”, which I think they are taking that in account by now too.

I have seen many other language education centers in different countries that do on-the-internet services, such as Effortless English, About.Com etc. They get many students from different countries and they sell their self-study  lessons through internet and charge the students very heavily with dollars, yet the quality of their service is not as high as the tuition fees they receive is worth. Their students spend a lot of time in online queues to ask their questions but still they don’t get much out of the course. But at Star, the students get the most out of the least possible amount of tuition fees and the time they allocate for their English courses. The only thing that matters is efficiency and techniques they use at Star. I believe if Star had had that high access to the technology as of those on-the-internet servers do, they would have had over a hundred thousand students and yet everyone would’ve been satisfied and happy. But sad and hard to say that unfortunately the new technology and better facilities are very scarce and limited in Afghanistan yet. But, I think it is still fine since William Shakespeare says, “He does it with better grace, but I do it more natural”. This quote fits Stars well since all what there is a lot are talents, skills, and capabilities and genuine minds.

July 2009, I was taking evening class at Barchi branch of SES.      the average number of students in a classroom of SES.

I studied at Star for a little over two years, and when I came out of Afghanistan, I realized that I was able to understand what the English speakers said, and also to explain what I wanted to. My only little problem was with the listening and catching some words from movies and videos I would watch sometimes. But, in not very long time I could improve my listening comprehension too. I’m now studying in an international university and have no difficulties understanding and communicating with my fellow classmates from different nationalities, for which I’m truly thankful for all my teachers at Star. And I’m fully content with the time I spent with them even though I wasn’t a remarkable or over average student.

this is in Mongolia International University, where i'm studying now. 

P.S, the photos in this post except for the last one are taken by my fellow classmate 'Ali Bahrami'

Education system causes serious problem in Afghanistan

As far as I know, and since as long ago as I can remember about the education system in Afghanistan, especially higher education, it has always been that routine-old-traditional same way of graduating from school and preparing for the tough entrance exam to college or that terrifying word “Koncor” which includes 260 less or more tough and confusing questions from all what students have learned throughout their school time. I had always thought that it must be the system the world countries follow, not until I came out of Afghanistan and found out that other countries have different system of educating the young generation. In simpler words if we compare the education system of Afghanistan with other countries, in Afghanistan is more like building a huge wall against the interest and want of  students by giving them the tough college entrance exam but in other countries it is in fact respecting what students want by enrolling them to their favorite faculties which itself is an encouragement and a motivator for students.  

There is no terrifying word of Koncor “Tough Entrance Exam, which seems impossible for 50% of school graduates to succeed and go to their long-admired majors” in other countries. Students in other countries don’t need to spend most of their time preparing only to answer around 260 perplexing questions, which might not even be that useful in their future education. They would rather get focused on their main knowledge. School students in most countries, while they are still in middle, choose which field to study in the future according to their interests and skills and surely get there. But, in the old education system of Afghanistan, only those who are super genius might be able to go to their favorite faculties. And the rest would be either enrolled to any faculty that their scores gotten in Koncor exam would match, or they would have no result at all, and need to spend more years to prepare them to fight in this same result-less battle. I myself am one the victims of this old traditional higher education system of Afghanistan. I wanted to become an engineer, but after I took the entrance exam, I was automatically enrolled to faculty of Natural Science which I’m never interested in. Ant that is I believe the main and major reason for most young people who totally leave their education after they don’t get the result they want. They get psychological problems, they lose interest in social lives and most awfully, to avoid their inside anger and sorrow of being in nowhere after all their efforts for going to college, some of these failures-to-colleges, tend to get into drug-user groups and gangsters which has become one the most serious problems for the government and a heavy burden to the society. And those who would have nothing to do after they fail the entrance exam,  surely think they would’ve very much loved to start working to be an illiterate carpenter, tailor or bus driver or etc while they were still kids if they had know they’d eventually fail to go the colleges they have admired whole their school time.

It is the responsibility of the government to devise out a plan to save the future of those many young people who are left nothing to do with their lives after they fail the college entrance exam.

If I were to suggest the ministry of higher education or those authorities who are responsible for this terrible but still ignored risk, I would say, they should either change the system of entering to college for students so that they could go and start their career in a field where their skills and interests match and fit. Or, the government should devise out a plan to provide jobs for those many young men and women who fail to succeed in going to college. So that the countless lives would be secure from risk of being jobless and so that those many women who can’t reach to colleges due to security problems and other barriers could work and get along with their lives with no serious worries and finally, so that so many similar education system-related issues would no longer be a burden for the government itself and for those many people who survive to live would no longer have difficulties with their lives.

One of the easier way the government can do is to go easier with students taking the college entrance exam, in other words, let them just choose to go their favorite colleges and witness what would come out after they graduate from their wanted-colleges. But, if the government is to keep that old system of higher education, and provide jobs for the failures, then that would be still better than nothing, but it costs the government to spend some more money on launching construction, mining, farming, raising and other possible work companies for people which surely would give satisfying results after a short time.

Recent Business Issue Between Afghanistan and Iran

Iran, after Pakistan is the second major business partner of Afghanistan's.

Recently, there have been talks that Afghanistan is going to end its business partnership with Iran. It is being said while according to the 2010 business record, the business income in between Afghan and Iranian businessmen has reached to 900 million dollars which obviously Iran benefited overall 75% of it and the government of Iran has anticipated that their income forecast will reach to one milliard dollars soon. For the past few decades Afghanistan has been a crowded consumer market of Iranian products. In exchange Afghan exporters have provided Iranians’ needs to agricultural products such as fresh and dry fruits, vegetables, home-made stocks and etc. But unfortunately due to the borders-policy and the tariff Iranian charge on Afghan exporters has very much lowered the amount of these exports.

Even though this decision is not still finalized, there are some obvious drawbacks and a little benefit seen if it is to actualize. Apparently Afghanistan would be the one bearing more economical harms than Iran since a lot of products are imported from Iran, and of course the economical instabilities would increase around the country. And those consumers who spent Iranian product would have hard time getting their satisfaction from Pakistanis or Chinese product. But it doesn’t mean that Iranian would not be the victim of this decision. Iran too would be affected economically since Iran is not part of most global business markets today due to political issues and Afghanistan is their most consuming customer. And that there are two very terrifying business rivals against Iran, especially when it comes to business in Afghanistan and the two other business partners, Pakistan and China “rivals of Iran”. The record shows that 30% of Afghanistan’s petroleum consumption comes from Iran which means if Afghanistan were to import these needs from the two major rivals of Iran, Pakistan and China, then Iran would be of course to lose the huge income they would get from Afghanistan. Besides, if this decision gets actualized, the number of Afghan refugees in Iran would double which is an unbearable burden for Iran. And also the illegal importer and exporters would increase which makes the transmission of illegal products like drugs easier and this is in harm of Iran and neither is beneficiary for Afghan government.

I think there are also some political parties who are against Iran in any way and want not only business partnership but also all the relationships with Iran to be abolished. They always look to grab such opportunities and get their own wants. The governments of Iran and Afghanistan both should think beyond these slight issues, and look for stronger relationships since they both need each other.