Afghanistan

The videos were used to train a variety of inclusive and special education teachers and rehabilitation workers.

I have used the EENET teacher training videos in three areas of our operations: Mazar, Taloqan and Jalalabad. So far, they have been very well received by the staff who include Inclusive Education Resource Persons (IERPs), Special Education Teachers (SETs), Community Rehabilitation Workers (CBRWs) and Inclusive Education Training Officers (IETOs).

Some of the participants were hearing impaired while others had visual impairment. I had Dari Sign Language interpreters working alongside me, in two of the locations where I used the videos. I also worked with a Dari language translator during the discussions about the videos.

Unfortunately, we could not use the group work activities from the manuals properly this time because of the small rooms and the number of participants (in Mazar for instance, there were 65 participants, in Taloqan there were 35, and in Jalalabad, 19). I definitely recommend making sure you have larger rooms and smaller groups so that the videos can be used fully as a stimulus for effective group work activities.

The participants enjoyed the sessions, but requested the translation of the videos into Dari and Pashto. I am therefore very happy to hear from EENET that the subtitles will be translated into these languages in early 2018.

Joseph Evans works for Swedish Afghanistan Committee in Afghanistan.