Murad Khane Primary School

Murad Khane Primary School was founded by Turquoise Mountain in 2007 as part of a broader urban regeneration project in a part of Kabul’s old city called Murad Khane. The area had been deprived of basic services for decades, houses were collapsing, and there were alarmingly low levels of educational attainment and healthcare among residents.

Turquoise Mountain started by establishing a literacy class in one of the houses that it had repaired. Literacy courses were originally held for thirty local children but later expanded to include local women. The courses were so popular that the classes were registered with the Ministry of Education as the Murad Khane Public School, which was officially opened on June 22nd 2008. The school has grown to include 122 formally registered pupils between the ages of four and fourteen and up to eighty local children in supplementary classes. Local men have cleared a rubbish dump next to the school, which has now been transformed into a playground, with the help of the children’s own designs. A school library has been established.

The school currently comprises three grades and a nursery. There are plans to develop the school by a grade a year for the next three years to meet the Ministry of Education standard of six grades. Average class sizes number thirty compared to the national average of fifty-eight pupils. The school year extends from early March to November with special holiday classes laid on for children during the winter months.

Angela Locke recently collected together lots of toys and classroom resources for the nursery and sent them out to Afghanistan. They have been very warmly received by the children.