School Shura in Nad-e Ali

ISAF newspapers are being used by local elders at a school in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, to educate children in three languages. The newspapers are printed in Dari, Pashtu and English, allowing the children to learn their local language as well as English.


Warrant Officer William “Taff” Davies, Royal Air Force, is part of the Military Stabilisation Support Team working with soldiers from the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment as part of Combined Force Nad-e Ali. Taff and his team have been working with both the local village elders and the Education Minister to help improve education for the village children.

The school in the village, was destroyed in the past by insurgents when they tried to demonstrate their control and influence of the Kalay [village]. The local elders now teach the schoolchildren in temporary locations and PB Shahzad provides a secure and ideal setting for education.


Taff said: “I was confused as to why they wanted to take so many copies of our newspapers until a local elder told me that the newspaper is an invaluable source of information and education.”

A shura – or meeting - that was recently held to discuss the educational requirements of the local children resulted in confirmation from the Provincial Education Minister that a new school would be provided as part of a development project.

Taff said: “In the meantime, the Military Stabilisation Support Team is providing valuable resources in the form of schoolbooks and pens – along with the newspapers - to facilitate the children’s education.

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Progress slow and messy in Afghanistan - BBC

By Ian Pannell, BBC News, in Helmand province, Afghanistan

t is six months since the guns of Operation Panther's Claw fell silent. It was the biggest British military operation last year and left 10 soldiers dead and many others seriously wounded.

The last time I was in Spin Majid, we were surrounded by hundreds of heavily-armed troops, in the midst of an intense and bloody battle to take a large swath of territory from the Taliban.

Danish tanks blasted insurgent hideouts, the air crackled with the sound of pitched gun battles, attack helicopters hovered overhead and, every few minutes, there was the nauseating blast of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) - bringing a brief but heavy pause to the march forward.

Today there is a school in Spin Majid; there is a new road, a clinic is being built and even a tiny market has opened that Regimental Sergeant Major Jon Sheard jokes is the local Whitewater shopping mall.

It is the centre of a battle for influence under way not just in Babaji district but across Afghanistan. It goes to the heart of the counter-insurgency strategy in the country.

But although the Taliban no longer have free rein here, they maintain an insidious presence.

Najibullah is one of the teachers at the school. He looks nervous as we arrive with a group of soldiers from the Coldstream Guards. It is their prize project in the district, one that must be made to succeed.

For now the school is housed in two yellowing tents while a permanent building is finished.

A few dozen small, raggedy children clutch colourful new textbooks and holler the words written in the local Pashto language on the blackboard. While the soldiers wait outside, the teacher reveals why he is so pensive.

"I will be honest with you, security is good and bad. The Taliban have threatened all of us.

"They say that if we run this school, they will do such terrible things that we cannot even imagine."

The parents have received the same threats and the empty desks are a testament to the insurgents' ability to wage a campaign of intimidation.

There should be 180 children at the school; today there are just 40. One teacher is absent because of a dispute over pay and the other turns out to be a policeman.

Winning and losing

Babaji district is home to the Coldstream Guards Battlegroup. They have made important steps forward here but as the school shows, they also face significant obstacles.

Like the Pied Piper of Babaji, Sgt Maj Sheard is shadowed by a trail of small children trotting along to keep up with him. "Salaam aleikum, sangay?" He asks how they are. The children are hoping for sweets and pens.

To read the complete report click here for the BBC.co.uk

The Taliban turned it into a bomb factory, but now this school is back in business

Picture: Lt Sally Armstrong
By: David Marley

An Afghan school that was turned into a Taliban bomb factory before being destroyed in fighting has reopened to pupils.

Six months after the school in Babaji, Helmand province, came under fire during a battle to drive out Taliban fighters, tented classrooms have been opened for more than 100 pupils. A permanent 12-room school for the site is due to be opened by the summer.

The move has been welcomed by the Britain's Department for International Development as part of its work to improve the Afghan education system. It contributes about £30 million a year to help support Afghan schools.

One of the key players in setting up the school in Babaji was Captain Martha Fairlie, a Territorial Army officer from St Andrews in Scotland and a former BBC Scotland education correspondent.

Captain Fairlie is head of the military stabilisation support team in Babaji, whose job is to try to restore normality to the area.

"The establishment of the temporary school is one of the most powerful signs that people are starting to have confidence in security in the area and are willing to send their children to school every day," she said.

The school teaches numeracy, literacy and religious education to pupils aged six to 20.

When the Taliban was forced from power in 2001, about 1 million children, almost all boys, were attending school, according to Afghan statistics.

Today, the government says, about 6.6 million children are enrolled in schools - about one third are girls.

Despite successes, Taliban attacks have forced some schools to close their doors over security fears.

Unicef figures for primary school enrolment between 2000 and 2007 stand at 61 per cent.

Officer inspires Afghan school

A new school in Afghanistan initiated by a major in the Welsh Guards has opened its doors, although he did not live to see it completed.

Major Sean Birchall started the renovation project in Basaran.

Maj Birchall, 33, who was described as an "instinctive leader", was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on patrol in Helmand province.

He hoped the school would address local concerns about a lack of education for their children.

The Ministry of Defence said: "Villagers explained how the headmaster had been executed by the Taliban and the school had fallen into a state of disrepair."

"Maj Birchall promised to turn the situation around, but the Guards were rocked by the tragic death of their company commander in mid-June."

His troops vowed to complete the officer's work while soldiers from 4th Battalion The Mercian Regiment provided security so local workers could renovate the school.

The school can accommodate more than 370 pupils.

Major Birchall was born in South Africa, and moved to the UK as a baby, growing up in Guildford, Surrey.