"Back to School" (BTS) is a 12-month program started by Skateistan in 2009 for street working children, refugees, and girls. Recent literacy statistics for Afghan youth aged 15-24 reveal that 49% of young men and only 18% of young women are literate.
Skateistan's Back To School program is divided into three semesters, with each semester being four months long. During each semester students study the equivalent of one grade of school, coming to Skateistan five days a week. The goal of the program is to get children in Afghanistan enrolled or re-enrolled into the public school system. Upon completion of the program students can apply for enrolment into a government school, usually entering the 3rd or 4th grade.
Over 65 Afghan children have been enrolled into school through the program so far, with an additional 40 youth (20 girls, 20 boys) currently attending the 2012/2013 Back to School program each day.
Skateistan is proud to announce the success of our 2012/2013 Back to School (BTS) students in Kabul. After one year of accelerated studying at Skateistan, this year 38 students have successfully passed their tests and joined Afghan public school last month, including 50% girls. None of the BTS students had previously attended public school.
Over the past several months hundreds of kids have been participating in different, fun activities at Skateistan in Kabul. They are now in the sixth week of their semester, which is on the topic of Nature and Natural Resources.
In the first few weeks they learned about nature, natural resources, finished products, renewable and nonrenewable resources. In order to get awareness of the beautiful nature around them, they went to different green spaces in Kabul and drew the nature. Then as a sample of natural resource they worked with paper, making collages and working on paper weaving. They made baskets, bracelets, boxes, and different designs based on paper weaving. At first we taught the students how to make a simple design of weaved paper and in coming weeks we will teach more difficult and complicated designs to them. The students have shown huge interest and attention in it and they really enjoyed the hands-on activities, as well as starting to think about where things come from.
"Back to School" (BTS) is a 12-month program started by Skateistan in 2009 for streetworking children and girls. Recent literacy statistics for Afghan youth aged 15-24 reveal that 49% of young men and only 18% of young women are literate. Skateistan's BTS program is divided into three semesters, each semester being four months long. In each semester students study one grade of school. The goal is to get children in Afghanistan back into the school system and when students complete the program they can apply to enroll into a government school usually entering the 3rd or 4th grade. There were many hurdles throughout the year, such as security issues and the bitter winds and snow of the winter months. Such challenges kept most adults indoors, however students continued to attend classes, clearly showing that they were inspired to pursue education despite these difficulties.
