Tashabos: Entrepreneurship Education in Afghanistan
CIPE’s Tashabos entrepreneurship education program is having an extremely positive impact on the future prospects of young people in Afghanistan. With the business skills they learn in the curriculum, young Afghan entrepreneurs are starting new businesses and contributing to the growth of their families’ businesses.
The textbook, often the only one students get to keep, explains concepts such as capital, investment, risk, demand, and lending through the story of a married couple who capitalize on the wife’s knitting and design skills to expand into a full-scale manufacturing enterprise. The materials provide students with an understanding of the business skills they need to participate in a market economy. Students explore the barriers the couple faces along the way and the methods they use to achieve success.
Success Highlights
Sulaiman runs a plastic manufacturing business and a plastic slippers wholesale shop in Kabul’s main bazaar. Sulaiman reports, “The ideas that I learned from Tashabos helped my family business from going bankrupt.”
Inspired by the Tashabos curriculum, 15-year-old Muslim convinced his father to loan him the money to open an eyeglass shop in the heart of Kabul in 2006. His business is still growing.
Uninterested in business before Tashabos, Baset now plays a key role in his family’s tailoring shop. He markets the business to new clients, including ministry employees, and secured a permit to sell at the U.S. Army base. In one year, Baset’s new business techniques increased revenues by 30-40 percent!
Tashabos student (center) works in a Kabul bazaar.
Support Tashabos
Where Your Donation Goes
It costs about $7 to reach one student with the Tashabos curriculum for one year. This includes printing and distributing textbooks, training a local teacher, providing each teacher with a modest stipend, administrative costs, and program evaluation.
Tashabos Today
With the full support of the Afghan Ministry of Education, CIPE began implementation of its Tashabos program in 2005. Today, the program reaches more than 9,500 students at 24 schools in Kabul, Bamiyan, and Parwan. Through public donations, CIPE will expand Tashabos to other parts of Afghanistan, starting with urban centers. With $10,000, CIPE can expand its program to a new city, such as Jalalabad, Herat, or Mazaar-e-Sharif, and reach 1,500 students. This estimate includes training local teachers and distributing books to every student. A network of qualified instructors will assist in the teacher training process, while support from the Ministry of Education ensures that schools are committed to teaching this curriculum for the long term.
