Madrasahs Go Mainstream: Taliban To Grant University Degrees To Religious Students In New Blow To Secular Education

Madrasahs Go Mainstream: Since seizing power, the Taliban has appointed its foot soldiers, commanders, and leaders as ministers and the heads of state-run institutions in Afghanistan, including universities and hospitals.

The decision has triggered widespread criticism among Afghans, who have accused the Taliban of hiring unqualified and uneducated fighters and clerics to key positions in its government.

In a move that is seen as a response to that criticism, the extremist group announced on January 20 that it would be granting graduates of madrasahs, or Islamic seminaries, the equivalent of high school diplomas and university degrees.

Afghan academics and educators say the Taliban is trying to pave the way for its members and loyalists to dominate government ministries and institutions.

Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, thousands of civil servants who worked for the Western-backed Afghan government have remained on the payroll of the Taliban government. But many have been forced to sign pledges that they will adhere to Islamic Shari’a law or were subjected to a test that gauged their knowledge of Islam.

“The Taliban loyalists are being gifted bachelor’s and master’s degrees,” Jehandad Jehani, a former economics professor at Khost University in southeastern Afghanistan, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

"This step will deny jobs to [non-Talibs] in the government and public sector," Jehani said. "People pursued formal studies for decades to help equip themselves for specific roles."

The Taliban’s government is dominated by clerics and lacks management experience and expert knowledge, which analysts say has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian and economic crises in the country.

Overhauling The System

Under the previous Afghan government, madrasahs were often informal and offered religious instruction to children in mainly poor communities.

But since the Taliban takeover, the militants have overhauled the education system in Afghanistan. They have converted scores of secular schools, public universities, and vocational training centers into Islamic seminaries, leading to a surge in the number of madrasahs in the country.

The Islamist group has also vowed to change the national curriculum and build a vast network of madrasahs across the country’s 34 provinces.

Hundreds of university professors and schoolteachers have been fired from their positions or fled the country, while teenage girls and women have been banned from receiving an education.

Afghan educators say the Taliban is bent on rooting out all forms of the modern secular education that thrived in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 toppled the group’s first regime.

In its latest attempt to undermine secular education, the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education said on January 20 that it will grant the equivalent of high school diplomas as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees to graduates of Taliban-run madrasahs.

The ministry said madrasah students who complete six years of education will get the equivalent of high school diplomas. Students who complete eight years of education will be granted a bachelor’s degree, while those with 11 years of religious education will be given a master’s degree after passing a test.

The move is likely to see tens of thousands of madrasah graduates receive formal qualifications, which are limited to Islamic subjects, including jurisprudence and Shari’a law.

The Taliban said it is currently administering exams across Afghanistan that will see some 50,000 madrasah students graduate with new diplomas and degrees.

“Now that they are equating the academic credentials of the madrasahs with those of the universities, it will render the latter irrelevant,” Noorullah Shad, a former university professor in Khost, told Radio Azadi.

“One can graduate from a madrasah in eight years, but it takes 16 years to finish [secular] school and get a bachelor’s degree from the university,” he added.

Asif Nang, a former Afghan education minister, said secular Afghan universities offered degrees in Islamic studies even before the Taliban takeover. But he said religious instruction has now overshadowed secular education.

He said the Taliban’s new decision is likely to pave the way for even more of its members to secure jobs in the government and state-run institutions.

Nang said the move is part of a broader effort by the Taliban to transform from a guerrilla insurgency into a functional government.

“The Taliban wants to transform its fighters from nonstate actors into state actors,” he said. RFE/SP