Juma Haydary. An exotic-sounding name, under which an ordinary Slovak probably imagines a person thousands and thousands of kilometers away and a life completely different from what we call ordinary here. It is therefore all the more interesting that he is an associate professor long actively working at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, but above all a person who, even from a distance, managed to change the face of university education in his home country. Why Slovakia?

In 1988 he came to the former Czechoslovakia to study chemical technology at a university. At that time he had no idea that he would be a student in Slovakia. "In Prague they divided us into several groups and I was assigned to Bratislava. Before starting my studies, however, I also completed a one-year language preparatory course in Košice, since at that time I could not say anything in Slovak yet."

After completing it, he began studying at the Slovak University of Technology and graduated in 1995. He then started doctoral studies at the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology of STU. The reason was the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which prevented him from returning to his home country. He adds with a laugh: "In the meantime, my life situation in Slovakia changed, as I got married here and had children. So I could not return home even if I wanted to." After completing his doctoral degree, he began working at the university as an assistant at the Department of Chemical Engineering. Currently he works there as an associate professor: "It has always been my goal to pursue science, so I never even considered working anywhere other than at a university." Development projects

The first impulse that led Mr. Haydary to devote himself to development projects in Afghanistan came after the Taliban regime and at a time when the international community decided to address the situation in his home country: "As an Afghan abroad, I began to think intensely about how I could contribute from my position as a scientist in Slovakia. In 2005 I applied for a grant for a development project in cooperation with Herat University in Afghanistan. It involved building a laboratory for testing the properties of building materials. I personally acted more in the role of manager, since construction is not my domain." The most actively involved in the project were mainly his colleagues from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of STU. The project was implemented with a success that exceeded expectations. The laboratory still operates today. They trained local teachers in the ability to teach effectively not only directly at Herat University, but also in Bratislava. This was the first project carried out with the help of Slovak Aid, the Slovak development assistance in 2006-2007.

The second and so far largest project was funded by the European Union. It began in 2008 and supported cooperation between European and Asian universities. In addition to STU, the Vienna University of Technology also joined, as well as the aforementioned Herat University, Kabul Polytechnic University, and the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok. The work involved creating a so-called Euro-Asian consortium to support technical education in Afghanistan. The goal was to increase the capacity and skills of teachers at technical universities. Associate Professor Haydary says: "We helped them achieve a sufficient qualification level of education necessary for performing their profession. Approximately ten young people at partner universities completed engineering studies thanks to the project." Another twenty potential teachers participated in several-month training stays abroad focused on the subject they teach in Afghanistan. Within the project, three large international conferences were organized in Kabul and Herat, whose main topics included, for example, energy, construction, and the environment. Experts from around the world attended the conferences. A secondary benefit of holding them was therefore also building contacts between individual countries. The project ended in 2011.

The last two projects took place under the auspices of Slovak development assistance. One was focused on the development of study programs and laboratories at technical universities. Due to the fact that educated people in Afghanistan have had only limited or even no access to current literature, equipment, and procedures within technological progress over the last twenty years, the teaching content remained very outdated. Juma Haydary explains the key points of the project, which took place in the period 2010-2011, as follows: "We addressed the entire development process — from elementary curriculum designs, provision of professional literature and the appearance of laboratories, to the training of almost 50 teachers of various technical fields from Afghanistan in Slovakia. Graduates of the training stay subsequently wrote a paper based on their experience in the Slovak technical education environment, which they could use for teaching at home, as well as for personal development, i.e., obtaining an additional degree."

The fourth and so far last project from the beginning of 2012 is still ongoing. It involves building laboratories for food microbiology and chemical engineering at Kabul Polytechnic University. Here the most significant contribution of the development activities is undoubtedly the creation of a new Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology. The establishment of this field was also required due to its connection to healthcare in the country. The aforementioned laboratories are to be physically built in the near future.

In Afghanistan, the demand for education disproportionately exceeds the possible capacity of universities. According to Haydary, the local technical universities still have enormous shortcomings compared to the Slovak University of Technology. This is despite the fact that even Slovakia has not yet achieved a top world level in this area. The natural development in Afghanistan was interrupted due to war conflicts and regime changes. This was precisely the main reason why the country remained literally cut off from the surrounding world and its progress for decades. This was suffered primarily by Kabul University (the equivalent of Slovakia's Comenius University), which this year already celebrates a respectable 80th anniversary of its founding, but over the last thirty years has not had enough opportunity to adapt to the modern era. The primary need for the development of education in Afghanistan currently is therefore not so much material as personnel, in the sense of the possibility of increasing teacher capacity. However, this process is long-term.

Visions for the future

When asked about the topic of development projects in the future, Juma Haydary is clear — to continue in the technical field. He is convinced that it can significantly contribute to building a more advanced Afghanistan and educating qualified experts. Associate Professor Haydary is in close contact with the Afghan academic community and personally travels to his home country about twice a year. The effect of the four implemented projects was noticeable, and STU has become a well-known term in Afghanistan. In the future, local technical universities want to strive for gaining further contacts and working on projects not only with Slovakia.

Associate Professor Haydary concludes his narrative with the words: "It is important that development projects are undertaken precisely by people originating from the given country. This of course applies under the condition that the person not only knows the situation first-hand, but is also adequately qualified to perform their work within development assistance. In such a case, personal involvement in the issue is only a benefit. However, this does not mean that other people should not be involved in projects." Author: Miroslava Čembová