The Centre d'Enseignement Français en Afghanistan (CEFA) consists of two

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

schools in the center of

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, together educating around 6,000 Afghan students. The ''Lycée Esteqlal'' ( fa, لیسه استقلال

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Esteqlal High School) is a

school in

. It is the second oldest school (after ''

Habibia High School Habibia High School ( fa, لیسه عالی حبیبیه) is a school in southwestern Kabul, Afghanistan which has educated many of the former and current Afghan elite, including President Ashraf Ghani and musician Ahmad Zahir. It was founded by K ...

'') in Kabul, and is recognized as the most prestigious school in the country. Lycée Esteqlal is a

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

, administered by the

Afghan Ministry of Education The Afghan Ministry of Education ( fa, وزارت معارف افغانستان , links=no)( ps, د پوهني وزارت افغانستان , links=no) is responsible for policy formulation, the organization and supervision of education in Afgha ...

, and is currently under the contract of

AEFE The Agency for French Education Abroad, or Agency for French Teaching Abroad, (french: Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger; abbreviation: AEFE), is a national public agency under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ...

, an educational agency of the

French Foreign Ministry The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs () is the ministry of the Government of France that handles France's foreign relations. Since 1855, its headquarters have been located at 37 Quai d'Orsay, close to the National Assembly. The term Qu ...

. The French Cultural Center (CCF) is also located inside the Lycée Esteqlal compound.

Further information

Created under the impulse of King

Amanullah Amanullah or Amanallah is a male Muslim given name ( ar , أمان الله ) meaning the trust or protection of God. It may refer to: * Amānullāh Khān (1892–1960), ruler of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929 *Amanullah Khan (disambiguation), seve ...

in 1922 as ''Amaniya School'', it was renamed in 1931 to ''Lycée Esteqlal'' (meaning "independence" in Persian). In 1968, French Prime Minister

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

laid the first brick of modern buildings, and the new site was inaugurated in 1974. The curriculum was entirely in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

until 1985 when diplomatic relations between France and Afghanistan were suspended under the communist regime. Since 2002, only a few subjects, such as French language,

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, are taught in French, and the rest in Persian. Until 1985, Lycée Esteqlal did not only receive Afghan students, but also several French nationals who were related to the French Embassy's diplomatic staff. Lycée Esteqlal along with Lycée Malalaï ( fa, لیسه ملالی), which is the other Franco-Afghan school for girls in Kabul were rebuilt and reopened at the beginning of 2003, and currently they are under the contract of Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger. King Amanullah, who was progressive and democratic also oversaw the opening of the first girls school, ''Masturat'', in 1921. ''Masturat'' was closed between 1928 and 1932, then reopened in 1932 through the efforts of the new King

Nadir Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian h ...

and became a girls secondary school in 1939, led by a French teacher. Seven hours a week of

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

was taught from the primary year upwards. In 1942, the school moved to a new building and took the name of ''Lycée Malalai'', from the name of a famous Afghan woman who fought in the resistance against the invading English in 1880 during the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

. In 2014 a

suicide bomber A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...

attacked a cultural center at Esteqlal High School, killing a German national and injuring 16. One of the injured was musician

Ahmad Naser Sarmast Ahmad Naser Sarmast is an Afghan-Australian ethnomusicologist. He is the founder and director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Early life and education As his father, Ustad Salim Sarmast, was a famous musician, composer and conducto ...

Notable alumni

Many internationally renowned Afghan personalities and figures have received part of their education or have obtained their

baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to: * ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification * Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree * English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...

in Lycée Esteqlal. * Ahmad Shah Khan, crown prince of Afghanistan *

Ahmad Shah Massoud ) , branch = Jamiat-e Islami / Shura-e Nazar Afghan Armed Forces United Islamic Front , serviceyears = 1975–2001 , rank = General , unit = , commands = Mujahideen commander during the Soviet–Afghan Wa ...

, renowned Afghan anti-Soviet resistance leader *

Amin Wardak Amin Wardak (born 1951) is a major Afghanistan, Afghan mujahideen leader who mostly fought against the Afghan communist regime and the Soviet invaders in his home region of Wardak Province during the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s. However, his ...

, mujahideen leader *

Atiq Rahimi Atiq Rahimi ( fa, عتیق رحیمی) (born 26 February 1962 in Kabul) is a French-Afghan writer and filmmaker. Life Atiq Rahimi was born in 1962 in Kabul to a senior public servant and attended high school in Lycée Esteqlal. Following the So ...

, well-known French-Afghan writer *

Eklil Ahmad Hakimi Eklil Ahmad Hakimi ( ps, اکلیل احمد حکیمی; born 1968) was Afghanistan's Minister of Finance and a former Afghan diplomat. He has served as Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister as well as its ambassador to China, Japan and the Unite ...

, former deputy minister of foreign affairs *Homayun Tandar, Afghan ambassador *Mohammed Akram, former minister of education and ambassador in France *Mohammed Kassem Fazelly, lawyer, professor, ambassador to UN *

Mahmoud Saikal Mahmoud Saikal ( prs, محمود صیقل) is a senior Afghan diplomat and an international development specialist. He was the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations from October 2015 until Februar ...

, former Afghan permanent representative to the UN *Mohammed Sediq Farhang, civil servant, historian *

Muhammed Akbar Khan Muhammed Akbar Khan ( ur, محمد اکبر خان), MBE PA-1 (19 April 1897 - 1993) was a Pakistani general and at the time of the independence of Pakistan, he was the most senior Muslim General. He also served as the first Senior Military Se ...

, crown prince of Afghanistan * Nur Ahmad Etemadi, former Afghan prime minister * Ravan A. G. Farhâdi, former ambassador to the UN, renowned writer, researcher, and professor *

Zalmai Rassoul Zalmai Rassoul ( ps, زلمی رسول; born 11 May 1943) is an Afghan politician who served as Foreign Minister of Afghanistan from January 2010 to October 2013. He previously served as National Security Advisor from June 2002 to January 2010. ...

, former Afghan foreign affairs minister
Biography, Ministry of Foreign Affairs *

Zemaryalai Tarzi Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi ( ps, زمریالی طرزی) (born 1939) is an archaeologist from Afghanistan. Born in Kabul in 1939, Professor Tarzi completed his studies under the supervision of Professor Daniel Schlumberger, in the process of obtaining ...

, internationally renowned archaeologist and professor

Notes

External links

Official website of Lycée Esteqlal
* Website by the French pedagogical team for Esteqlal and Malalai school

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lycee Esteqlal AEFE contracted schools International schools in Afghanistan French international schools in Asia Schools in Kabul Educational institutions established in 1922 1922 establishments in Afghanistan