Developing Afghan military faculty
NATO and high-level Afghan faculty from the Marshall Fahim National Defence University (MFNDU) in Kabul recently launched a Master Instructor Programme at the ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan. The initiative was developed under NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) with Afghanistan.
The launch event, which took place from 7 to 11 October 2019, marked the start of the process of developing Afghan military faculty to build a self-reliant and sustainable capacity to create and deliver quality curriculum. Teaching methods will be based on current adult learning principles and best practices, aligned with the needs of the MFNDU and the democratic values of Defence Institution Building.
All participants demonstrated a high level of interest and engagement with the content, seeking to learn as much as possible about each topic as well as how to develop a lesson plan based on modern methods. They are already strong advocates of new teaching methods and have formed a group at MFNDU to delve further into the topics, meeting regularly to share their findings.
Launched in 2010, DEEP Afghanistan aims to advise Afghanistan on how to build, develop and reform educational institutions in the defence and military domain in the form of peer-to-peer engagement. NATO is also helping the MFNDU to develop curricula (”what to teach”) and faculty development (“how to teach”).
Military education is considered by Afghan authorities as a key element to bring forward more concrete cooperation with NATO.
Since the beginning of DEEP Afghanistan, Azerbaijan has played an active role in helping NATO to facilitate the overall implementation of the Programme. The ADA University has hosted several DEEP Afghanistan events, with Azerbaijan faculty sharing their own expertise. This support has been very valuable in terms of regional cooperation and mutual understanding between Azerbaijan and Afghanistan on key strategic issues like military education.
“We are very pleased to be able to host this event in partnership with NATO, which is aimed at strengthening the knowledge and skills of our Afghan colleagues. And we will continue supporting Afghanistan through educational projects in Azerbaijan,” says the Executive Vice Rector of ADA University, Fariz Ismailzade
DEEPs are tailored programmes through which the Alliance advises partners on how to modernise their defence and security sector educational institutions. Currently, 16 individual programmes run in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, the Republic of Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia and Ukraine.