NATO Training Mission provides literacy among security forces

Currently, some 83,000 members of the ANSF are taking literacy lessons in training centres all over the country. Some lessons even take place at police stations or checkpoints

“The goal of the programme is to bring functional literacy – and that includes numeracy – to the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Afghan National Army (ANA),” says Major Jeremy Burnan, chief of the literacy branch for NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A). “All police and army recruits take literacy classes in their basic training. The aim is to achieve the first level of literacy competence, and this is fulfilled in 64 hours of instruction,” he says.

According to the Major, class sizes vary considerably. “We aim not to have a class bigger than 33, but there is no minimum size,” says Burnan. “So in one place we will teach 33 and in another we may have only a small handful.”

Major Burnan says that the best way to reach the troops is to bring the lessons to them, which is why training is happening in more than 700 locations nationwide.

“The biggest group now taking classes in one place is about 5,600,” he explains. This happens at Kabul Military Training Centre, but of course the lessons are spread out, taking place at different times.

Major Burnan leads a team of 13 coalition military, Afghan and US civilians in the management of the programme. There are more than 2,000 teachers currently teaching literacy.

Initially, there were a number of small literacy programmes within the ANP and ANP. These were followed in October 2009 by an NTM-A contracted arrangement before the programme began in its current format in September 2010.

All police and army recruits take literacy classes in their basic training. The aim is to achieve the first (foundation) level of literacy competence, and this is completed in 64 hours of instruction. It costs approximately $30 for one student to progress from illiteracy to the first-grade level.

“Soldiers and policemen are very proud of their new-found skill,” says Burnan. “We know of policemen who go home after their daily lessons in their station and gather their families and friends around to teach them what they have learned that day.  We also know of a soldier who was so intent to become literate that he signed up for lessons three times, twice under pretend names. No amount of rhetoric can replace the dozens of stories we hear like this. And let’s not forget the instructors too – they are also proud of their role and achievements in making a difference to Afghanistan, and go to extraordinary lengths to provide their service on our behalf. We know of teachers going to lessons on donkeys, and student progress records being transported in the same way, by helicopter, and in one case by overnight bus in disguise,” he explains. 

“To a soldier, literacy is a ‘life and death matter,” the Major continues. “I can count my ammunition – that’s a life and death matter. With literacy I can understand the orders of my commander; I can account for my equipment; I can read the writing on a map – that’s a life and death matter,” he says.

Major Burnan points out the added benefits for the policemen as well.

“Literacy helps in upholding of the Rule of Law,” he says. “Without literacy there are no civil rights, no accountability, no understanding of that Rule of Law. I can identify a person; I can write a report myself. I can describe an incident and write it down. I can read the Law – I am the complete policeman and twice the citizen.”

“No longer will the training of policemen or soldiers need to be predicated on illiteracy,” stresses Burnan. “Literacy will enhance the trainability of the Force, it will expand the methods by which techniques and knowledge can be learned.  And in the field, it will enhance the ability of leaders to communicate with their men, and the men with their leaders,” he concludes.