Friends,
I’m very proud to announce the launch of Firoz Academy, an education company in Kabul, Afghanistan. My colleagues and I have been working on Firoz for months—clarifying our mission, developing our curricula, forging local partnerships. I’m excited to share it with you now.
What is Firoz?
Firoz Academy is an education company based in Kabul that offers high-school aged Afghans two services:
- World-class instruction in math, English, and technology.
- Assisted pathways to high-paying IT and telecommunications jobs.
Why Afghanistan, and why focus on IT skills?
Afghanistan is a country of abundant beauty, youth, and energy. However, too few of Afghanistan’s most talented young people have access to practical, high-quality instruction in the math, science and technology. These skills are a prerequisite for success in today’s service-oriented global economy.
Especially because Afghanistan is a landlocked country, Afghanistan’s economic development will depend more than most on the growth of a successful IT/telecommunications services industry. Therefore, it is crucial that ambitious Afghans have the opportunity to develop skills essential to holding down jobs in those industries.
Yet there are few such educational opportunities in Afghanistan today—and even where they exist, they are too often low-quality and thus fail to prepare students adequately for today’s jobs and the jobs of the future.
Firoz Academy will bridge this gap by offering affordable supplementary education in math, science, and technology to Afghan students.
Our classes are not designed to substitute for students’ primary education. Instead, we offer low-cost, yet world-class, math, science, and tech instruction for a supplementary 2-3 additional hours per day.
Our courses focus on the practical skills necessary for our students to hold down a good-paying job. By adding to the critical mass of skilled potential employees, we aim to make Afghanistan a more attractive destination for foreign direct investment. Our long-term ambition is not only to improve our students’ lives—we also aim to help propel Afghanistan on to the IT services-based development trajectory of India or the Philippines.
What makes Firoz different than any other school/education company in Afghanistan?
One of the biggest deficits in the Afghan education system is between what an Afghan student must learn to graduate from high school and what skills an Afghan citizen must have to command a stable, high-paying services industry or government job.
In fact, the current education system does not provide an average Afghan student or recent graduate with sufficient practical knowledge to work as a programmer, IT support staff, or even contribute to the management of a business or government department.
Firoz Academy aims to fill a crucial gap in what Afghan students learn today.
Firoz Academy’s courses are specifically designed to fill this critical gap. This is how we're doing it:
- We offer grade-appropriate math, science and computer skills instruction to current high school students and recent graduates who are looking for continuing education.
- As much as possible, we source and train local Afghan teachers to deliver our carefully designed, grade-appropriate curricula across all three subjects.
- Each class hosts only as many students to whom we can provide individualized instruction.
- We create a classroom atmosphere that invites critical thinking and question-asking.
- We train our teachers by the most well-proven, cutting-edge instructional and classroom management methods.
- We use problem-based curricula to emphasize the teaching of practical skills relevant to jobs in Afghanistan today and in the near future—how to manage a budget, how to use science to improve agricultural performance, or how to build a website or a business model.
In other words, we plan to offer the brightest, most ambitious young Afghans an opportunity to develop the skills they need to command a stable, well-paid job. In the process, we will help groom Afghans who will contribute to the economic development of their great country.
What’s next for Firoz?
Later this winter, working with local partners, we will pilot our unique approach to education in Afghanistan via a 1-month long math course for Kabul-based high schoolers. We will measure our students’ math ability before, and after, the pilot. We’ll take what we learn from the pilot to improve our offerings in preparation for a wider, multi-site launch in late 2017/early 2018. Our medium-term aim is to offer our world-class courses to thousands of Afghan students every weekday.
How can you help?
Right now, all we need is your support. Please visit our website for additional information about our team, our goals, and our vision. Please follow our Facebook and Twitter pages. Most of all, please stay tuned for further emails updating you on our progress. We have a lot of work to do.
Sincerely,
John
Firoz Academy
FirozAcademy.com
Facebook.com/FirozAcademyKabul
@FirozAcademy