Equality, Reform, and the Role of Teachers in National Progress

Speech at the Inauguration of Competitive Examinations for Teachers by the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission

Keypoints: 

• Equality through merit: Open competition gives equal opportunity.
• Constitutional values: Unity and equality are protected by the constitution.
• Respect for teachers: Teaching shapes future generations.
• Trust in transparency: Public participation ensures fairness.
• Women’s education: Educating women transforms generations.
• Power of education: Schools build commitment to the nation.
• Youth leadership: Progress depends on the younger generation.
• Reform and integrity: Fighting corruption protects trust.
• Merit-based governance: Recruitment must be transparent.
• National responsibility: Afghanistan’s future rests with capable citizens.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Respected candidates! In your faces, I see both hope and anxiety. I hope that your hope proves stronger than your fear. Dear colleagues, Mr. Naderi, Mr. Khwaja Omari, Mr. Balkhi, Mr. Rasouli, all associates, sisters, and brothers! First of all, I offer you the greeting of the leader of humanity: Peace be upon you, and the mercy and blessings of Allah!

What does this hall [the Loya Jirga Hall] represent? It represents two great national decisions concluded here: the Emergency Loya Jirga of Afghanistan, which laid the foundation for modern governance in our country, and the Constitutional Loya Jirga, our national covenant, which ensured the equality of every Afghan with their fellow citizen.

Today in this hall, we witness the implementation of constitutional values through a transparent and effective mechanism. What is the difference between personal influence (wasita) and open competition? Personal influence represents the inequality of one citizen and one Afghan over another; open competition represents the absolute equality of all our daughters and sons.

How can I distinguish between you? None of you are different to me than my own children, Mariam and Tarek! The only thing that can distinguish you is a transparent and open competition. For that reason, I want to first thank every candidate—not just because you are seeking work, which is a duty, but because today you have chosen the sacred profession of teaching.

I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart, for the future generations of Afghanistan will, God willing, be safe in your hands and your minds. Secondly, I thank each of you for your trust in the transparency of this process. If you do not believe and do not participate, the process yields no results. Today, your presence gives me the confidence to stand courageously against corrupt individuals and those who prefer one group of Afghans over another, and to say that Afghanistan belongs to every Afghan and no one holds a higher preference.

I want to express my gratitude for your commitment to the future generations of Afghanistan! Especially to our daughters and ladies. Global experience has shown—with all due respect to my fellow men [smiles]—that if you educate a man, you change an individual; when a woman is educated, five generations change. If you want a clear example, look at your "First Servant." I am standing before you today because my grandmother was educated and believed in education; she was lenient in everything else, but in lessons, she was uncompromising. I am certain you will raise generations that will bring fundamental transformations to Afghanistan thanks to your training.

I still recall with the utmost respect the teachers at Esteqlal High School, where I attended the first five grades, and Habibia High School, where I studied from grade six to twelve. When I returned to Afghanistan after 24 years of exile, a representative of an international news agency asked me why I left a comfortable job and a high salary—since I have always worked for free—to come back in the very first week. I replied: because of my teacher and my schoolbooks! Those schoolbooks taught us the lesson of commitment and love for this homeland. I hope that you preserve this great heritage, which is the result of three thousand years of Afghan effort, expand it, and show the face of a modern Afghanistan.

You represent the New Afghanistan, and each of you is an extraordinary ambassador of Afghanistan to the world. In your faces today, the world sees a new Afghanistan. What is that Afghanistan? It is an Afghanistan of national unity and commitment—a clear commitment to reform! An Afghanistan that believes in itself, sees its future, has no doubt as a nation regarding its destiny, and believes that we will develop the vast natural wealth God has given us and the immense human wealth that you represent.

I want to thank the Ministry of Education for initiating this great circle of reform from a very dire state. If corruption exists elsewhere, perhaps some of our money is wasted—though money has its value—but corruption in the Ministry of Education results in the destruction of generations and trust.

I still know a colleague of mine who is a world-renowned professor; he has never forgotten how, in his second year of university, an exam was interfered with, preventing him from getting a scholarship until his fourth year. That resentment never faded because no Afghan and no human being can forget injustice. It was for this reason that my clear decision was that all teacher posts must first be put to open examination. My commitment to you is that positions in all departments will be recruited based on transparency. If one is the president of a country that believes in democracy, the president's powers regarding recruitment should decrease day by day.

Any post that comes through the Administrative Reform Commission—and I express my gratitude to the Commission, the Commissioners, and Mr. Naderi—I sign with my eyes closed. However, for positions that used to come based on personal taste, I was forced to delay them for two or three months to ensure they were handled correctly. I thank the Ministry of Higher Education, the Kankor Department, Mr. Khamoosh, and Mr. Rasouli.

What is our commitment to the new generation? Our commitment is that we entrust the future of Afghanistan to you. It is often said that the future belongs to the youth; No! The present belongs to you. It is you whose capable arms and active minds move this country forward. [With a laugh] No one should speak too much during an exam, so I thank you all, wish you all success, and hope those who succeed become the means for job creation. The state is fully committed to this generation, undertaking fundamental reforms so that, God willing, you all will be active members of this society, whether in the private or public sector.

Long live Afghanistan!