Many Afghan soldiers can handle a rifle very well, but most of the soldiers can't even read or write their own name. Most of the soldiers were farmers and didn;t have much time to learn how to read or write. Most spent their time fighting in wars and leraning how to handle fierce artillery for the army at young ages. But now these Afghan soldiers are enrolling in a two month literacy course to help advance their knowledge or give them some knowledge in reading and writing.
This course starts with teaching the soldiers basic numbers and letters in the Persian alphabet. There is a very high number of these soldiers who can't read or write, the number are 70 to 90 percent. That is a very high number of soldiers who are illiterate. This shows how much the United States cares and takes part in education to people will have knowledge and not be illiterate on the basics of learning letters and numbers.
The soldiers are enjoying this learning experience and many of them couldn't read until their first day in class. The teacher of the class is now making soldiers give a round of applause to each soldier that successfully reads a sentence the is on the blackboard. I think that this is good for these soldiers. Some of the soldiers said they couldn't count, but they knew how to count their ammunition, that is sad but that is how it is in Afghanistan. But, now since these soldiers have the opportunity to learn, hopefully this will encourage these soldiers to learn more and pass it on to their family and friends.
Link to this post and podcast: http://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/133745097/afghan-army-gets-training-in-reading-and-writing
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