INDIAN GOVERNMENT
TO SEND TEAM OF OFFICERS TO AFGHANISTAN
The Indian Government
will send a team, comprising officers from the Ministries of Human
Resource Development and Science & Technology, to Afghanistan
to study the grassroot requirements in the education sector in
that country. The team will be constituted and will be sent shortly.
Besides, the Afghan Embassy officers stationed in Delhi can hold
detailed meetings with HRD Ministry’s officials to work out some
concrete, structured help in the education sector for Afghanistan.
This was stated by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister for
HRD and S&T while holding talks with Mohd. Yonus Qanooni,
Minister of Education and Advisor on Internal National Security
Affairs, Afghanistan, here today. The Minister made this announcement
while responding to the Afghan Minister’s request for comprehensive
and wide ranging help in the education sector from India.
Regarding the Afghan
request for English language teachers from India, Dr. Joshi said
that a time frame can be worked out to send such teachers to Afghanistan.
Before sending these teachers, they will have to be sensitized
towards the customs and practices in Afghanistan. The Afghan Minister
also made a request for providing scholarships for Afghan students
in India, to which also Dr. Joshi said that the Ministry would
try and work something out.
Dr. Joshi told the
Afghan delegation that one pressing need that they had spoken
about, i.e. paucity of text-books, can be dealt with very soon.
Text-books of the National Institute of Open Learning which are
available in Urdu, can be provided to them. The Afghans would
be comfortable with these books as they will be in the same script
as they use. The Minister added that if the Afghans like these
books, they can be printed in bulk and made available very soon
and in all probability, at a much lower cost. Dr. Joshi also reacted
positively to the Afghan request for training of teachers in India,
saying that modalities for this could be worked out easily.
