Turkish educational aid to Kabul was brought to the forefront during the fourth trilateral meeting hosted by President Abdullah Gül between himself and the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai requested in these meetings that Turkey build more schools and buildings for healthcare services in Afghanistan and that the Turkish private sector invest in his country. Through the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), Ankara has already built 68 schools in Afghanistan.
There are a total of six Afghan-Turkish schools operating in the country, with the first opened in 1995 and including one girls’ high school. Karzai praised the Turkish schools in Afghanistan, saying they were an example of the type of schools that they wanted open in their country. The high schools -- in Shibirgan, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Heart for boys, and one all-girls high school in Kabul -- operate under the title “Afghan-Turkish Schools.”
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This year, Turkey is to build and furnish 15 schools and seven health clinics through TİKA. A girls’ boarding school to be built in Mazar-e-Sharif has passed the architectural design stage and is awaiting a tender for its construction. Among the schools Turkey is to build is a continuing education center to focus on vocational education. In addition, 88 wells for drinking water are to be sunk. Turkey’s aid is not limited to building schools and clinics; it includes such diverse projects as paving roads in the capital of Kabul, the opening of a Turkology department at an Afghan university and the restoration of the home in which Mevlana Muhammed Jelaluddin Rumi was born.
The total humanitarian aid Turkey had provided to Afghanistan as of the end of 2008 was $308 million. There are over 6 million students in Afghanistan, with over 4,000 schools operating without proper school buildings.
