Afghanistan: BBC Education show launched for young people

An educational TV programme for young people in Afghanistan has been launched by the BBC.

The show, which is aimed at children aged 11 to 16, has been created to help children who have been banned from going to school in the country.

Girls over the age of 11 have not been allowed to go to school by a group called the Taliban which took over the country in 2021.

The weekly programme is called Dars which means lesson in Pashto and Dari, Afghanistan's official languages.

It is hosted by BBC Afghan female journalists.

Presenters Shazia Haya and Malaika Ahmadzai (in Pashto), and Aalia Farzan and Sahar Rahimi (in Dari) were all evacuated from Kabul during the 2021 Taliban takeover.

Aalia Farzan said: "Sometimes I ask myself, if I were a teenage girl in a country where I can't go to school, wouldn't I be very happy if someone helped me, if someone came and taught me?"

Shazia Haya added: "When I am working on this programme, I picture myself as a 16-year-old, and I wish there was a TV programme such as Dars back then… I hope that, as they study with the help of our programme, they also learn that they should not give up on education."

Dars will use content from BBC Bitesize, including maths, history, science, and Information and Communications Technology modules.

BBC Pashto presenter Shazia Sangarwal is teaching Afghan children maths by adapting BBC Bitesize content

Adapting content isn't just about translation Mariam Aman one of the programme's producers told the BBC they look at other things as well:

"Does a boy or girl living in rural Afghanistan know what pizza is when we are talking about fractions in maths or should we keep it as big round bread?"

It will also use some news content from across the BBC.

Shazia Haya is one of the Pashto presenters of the new education programme

The first 12-week series of Dars will air four times a day, Saturday to Friday, on the newly launched BBC News Afghanistan channel.

The half-hour programme will also be available via BBC News Pashto and BBC News Dari Facebook channels, on radio and will be part of the BBC Persian TV channel schedule.

Schools in Afghanistan

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, when US and British troops started to withdraw from the country.

The regime said that they would behave differently from how they had ruled Afghanistan in the past - when they enforced a similar ban on education between 1996 and 2001.

But since 2021 only girls' primary schools along with all boys' schools have remained open in most of the country.

And despite promising that the ban on education for older girls is temporary this time, the Taliban still hasn't allowed girls back into secondary schools.