Libraries and counterinsurgency

[Schmedlap]

I've read about how eduaction is important for economic development. What about building libraries in Afghan villages besides schools and Mosques to help the population? I see libraries as important in raising the literacy rate and helping the people empower themselves. Does anyone know about libraries being constructed as part of the civilian surge in Afghanistan?

Access to the internet serves many of the same functions and many more that libraries serve. A library without good schools to guide the students is no more useful than an internet connection, imo. The internet is a bigger collection, open more hours, and easier to use.

There are obviously downsides of content that is more difficult to discern as truth or fiction, but most people seem to be focused on obtaining marketable job skills rather than verifying urban legends on snopes, so expanding internet access would seem to be something cheaper and more effective. Ashraf Ghani raised that issue in "Fixing Failed States".

[Steve the Planner]

I scratch my head about schools.

In the early 19th Century, a fellow named Rosenwald decided to improve minority schools in the US by establishing a Sears Roebuck approach---a standardized school house.

The Rosenwald Schools were a real breakthough---standard design of two classrooms---and all the necessaries to go forward with basic education.

I watched one after another school house get custom designed and built in Iraq, often without any equipment, and with no standardization of materials, supplies, etc...

In the US, for example, most school systems use standardized facilities and equipment---solely to minimize maintenance/operations from school to school.

I assume an Afghan school is primarily going to be built with local materials, but some standardization should exist, from a facility standpoint---a kit of parts for a standard school. How big is a classroom? How many desks does it need? is there one chalk board per classroom? Etc...

What are all those millions of dollars of NGO funds doing in Kabul without starting, for example, a simple bookbinding operation (even with binders) that could print an Afghan equivalent of a MacGuffey Reader in any language, on demand, and with fairly short runs. Each new school starts with a shipment of school books.

Once you nailed a process for short runs of locally-produced educational materials in the appropriate language, how hard would it be to improve the content and build an on-demand library to support basic 1-12 level education in Afghanistan?

How hard does this have to be?

Steve

[IntelTrooper]

I assume an Afghan school is primarily going to be built with local materials, but some standardization should exist, from a facility standpoint---a kit of parts for a standard school. How big is a classroom? How many desks does it need? is there one chalk board per classroom? Etc...

What are all those millions of dollars of NGO funds doing in Kabul without starting, for example, a simple bookbinding operation (even with binders) that could print an Afghan equivalent of a MacGuffey Reader in any language, on demand, and with fairly short runs. Each new school starts with a shipment of school books.

Once you nailed a process for short runs of locally-produced educational materials in the appropriate language, how hard would it be to improve the content and build an on-demand library to support basic 1-12 level education in Afghanistan?

How hard does this have to be?

Steve

It's hard to build any schools when it takes months of PRT visits of 18-20 dudes a whack, 4 or 5 vehicles, ANP escort, photographers, KLEs every time, then the paperwork gets lost... well, then there's the matter of contracting the work, acquiring the materials, deciding on a reasonable timeline to have it completed... hiring a (that's right, one) teacher, arranging security... forcing some governmental agency or NGO to front the funds for continued operation...

It's all very hard, Steve!

Or, you could just have a couple guys drive down in a HiLux and set everything up, but that would be dangerous! Way more dangerous than having huge swaths of ungovernable terrain with thousands of disenfranchised, unemployable, easily manipulated youth for the foreseeable future!

[Kiwigrunt]

Ashraf Ghani raised that issue in "Fixing Failed States".

Here he is in 19 minutes.