AIL's Pre-school Education Program (PEP) is one of its most popular programs and serves over 300 Afghan children per month in Kabul, Herat and Peshawar.

It offers a comprehensive curriculum that caters to the age and learning needs of the children. The students study a wide variety of subjects—Dari, English, math, drawing, gymnastics, handicrafts, colors, health lessons, peace lessons, numbers, and alphabets. They also learn and perform Afghan songs, dances, poems and short skits and have performed in many local and national events.

They have been featured on Afghan radio, BBC-radio, and TV and perform at ceremonies for all AIL seminars and events. The children love to do these performances, which build their self-esteem as well as their knowledge of their heritage and culture.

AIL's PEP program stands in stark contrast to the traditional methods of primary and pre-primary education in Afghanistan. Pre-primary education that was directed at preparing children for grade school did not exist prior to AIL’s PEP.

Primary education teaching methods consisted of rote memorization and dictation. Children did not typically learn to read until the third grade. Some of AIL’s PEP students learn to read before they leave pre-school! Some AIL PEP students are placed into higher grades when they begin primary school because of the education they received at PEP.

Teacher training and supervision is an integral part of AIL’s pre-school education program. AIL has developed and published a pre-school teacher training manual and trained hundreds of pre-school teachers.  More than 250 new teachers were trained in 2007-2008.

Seminars are designed to upgrade the skills of pre-school teachers and focus on developing classroom objectives, the characteristics of a good teacher, psychology, discipline and student-centered methodologies for teaching math, language, health and other subjects.  

AIL encourages parent and community involvement in the pre-school program. Parents contribute food and other supplies to offset the costs of running the pre-school. Parents also meet with teachers periodically to learn about their children's progress and activities during school and to give feedback and suggestions on how to improve the program.

Parents are very happy with PEP and like the opportunities that PEP provides parents who want to be involved. One parent wrote this thank you note to AIL PEP: 

“My son Mahmood was a student in AIL PEP for two years. During these two years he got an extraordinary educational training, after which he was ready to join school. Now he is a school student at Kabul primary school. His teachers are satisfied with his attitude and studies. He gets high marks in exams. We can say that the credit goes to AIL. Mahmood’s family offers its high appreciation about AIL and the PEP Manager and the teachers’ hard work and efforts. We wish AIL lots of success.”