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'