The Taliban say they are building Afghanistan’s future through education. The question is what kind of future, and at what cost.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said this week that more than 20,000 religious schools operating under the Ministry of Education are active across Afghanistan, with around 2.5 million students enrolled in religious studies. Speaking not at a conventional school but at what he described as a “jihadi school” in Kandahar, Mujahid said the Taliban have placed particular emphasis on religious and jihadi education since returning to power.
He also claimed that around 12 million students are engaged in what he termed modern education across the country, adding that the Taliban have “reformed” the national curriculum, without explaining what was changed, what was removed, or who oversaw these reforms.
What is not mentioned in these official claims is the nature, purpose, and long-term impact of this parallel education system now spreading across Afghanistan.
When education becomes indoctrination
Since seizing power, the Taliban have prioritized the construction and expansion of jihadi schools, mosques, and religious institutions nationwide. International organizations and human rights groups have repeatedly warned that this rapid growth risks normalizing extremism and hardening militant worldviews among children and adolescents.
Those concerns have gained fresh urgency following reports of a recent explosion at such a school in Nangarhar, where students were allegedly being trained in bomb-making when the blast occurred. If confirmed, the incident alone raises grave questions about what is being taught under the banner of education, and how early violence is being introduced as a skill rather than condemned as a crime.
A study by the Afghanistan Human Rights Center described the expansion of Taliban-run jihadi schools as having “negative and dangerous” effects on the thinking of young people. The report said school curricula have been altered, key subjects removed, and ideological instruction elevated at the expense of critical learning. It also warned that the actual number of such institutions may be higher than officially acknowledged.
According to the findings, at least one large jihadi school has been built in each province, many with extensive facilities and dormitories capable of housing up to 2,000 individuals. Additional schools have been established in numerous district centers. In Kunduz province alone, four large jihadi schools and around 800 religious schools have reportedly been set up in just three years.
Equally telling is the language now being used. The Taliban increasingly refer to these institutions as “schools” or “jihadi schools” rather than madrasas, a term long associated with clerical religious instruction. The shift appears deliberate, an attempt to soften perception, normalize purpose, and blur the line between education and ideological training. It invites a simple but uncomfortable question. If these are merely schools, why are they producing fighters rather than scholars.
This push for ideological schooling stands in stark contrast to another Taliban policy that remains unchanged. Girls’ education beyond the sixth grade, along with access to universities, has been closed for more than four years. Millions of Afghan girls remain locked out of classrooms, even as the Taliban claim to be reforming education nationwide. The contradiction is not accidental. It is structural.
Afghanistan’s next generation is being shaped in carefully controlled spaces, where obedience replaces inquiry and ideology replaces knowledge. While the international community continues to hold conferences, issue statements, and debate engagement, an entire generation is being Talibanized in real time.
The world may still be scratching its head over how to deal with Afghanistan’s rulers. Afghanistan’s children, meanwhile, are being taught exactly how the rulers want the future to look.
