RASC News Agency: In a profoundly troubling development, the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education has commenced the official issuance of bachelor’s and master’s degree equivalencies to graduates of religious seminaries, self-styled as “Islamic scholars.” This move starkly accelerates the regime’s campaign to dismantle Afghanistan’s academic standards and replace meritocratic education with ideological conformity. According to credible sources on Wednesday, May 28, the Taliban regime has decreed that Madrassa graduates who pass regime-administered examinations will be granted formal degrees deemed equivalent to university-issued bachelor’s and master’s certificates. This decision flagrantly bypasses established academic processes, undermining decades of educational progress.
Concurrently, the Ministry has executed a sweeping purge of professional academic staff, reportedly dismissing approximately 20% of qualified university professors many holding advanced degrees (master’s and doctorates) from prestigious national and international institutions, and possessing years of pedagogical experience. This purge systematically removes voices of expertise and dissent, replacing them with ideologically aligned but academically unqualified individuals from religious seminaries. Experts and observers warn that these policies are part of a deliberate Taliban strategy to transform Afghanistan’s higher education sector into a vehicle for ideological indoctrination rather than intellectual development. By sidelining experienced academics and awarding degrees to madrassa graduates without rigorous academic training, the regime is eroding the integrity, credibility, and global standing of Afghanistan’s universities.
“This is a wholesale Talibanization of the educational system an assault on critical thinking and academic freedom,” said a senior Afghan educator who requested anonymity due to security risks. “It signals a future where dogma replaces scholarship, and loyalty trumps competence.” The consequences of such policies are far-reaching. The conferral of academic qualifications without adherence to international standards will inevitably degrade the quality of Afghanistan’s professional workforce, stifle innovation, and impair the country’s socio-economic development. This rollback threatens to isolate Afghanistan’s academic institutions from global educational networks, obstructing collaboration, research, and student mobility.
Furthermore, the purge of academic staff is emblematic of the Taliban’s broader authoritarian consolidation. It exemplifies the regime’s intolerance toward intellectual plurality and its readiness to quash any form of independent thought or reform. The prioritization of ideological allegiance over expertise undermines the very foundations of knowledge production and dissemination. “Afghanistan’s universities, once beacons of resilience and hope amid decades of conflict, are now being reduced to echo chambers for Taliban ideology,” observed an international education policy analyst. “This regression will haunt generations to come.”
Despite widespread condemnation from domestic and international communities, the Taliban have doubled down on their policies, framing the overhaul as a restoration of Afghanistan’s “Islamic identity.” However, human rights advocates and education specialists contend that this is less about faith and more about entrenching authoritarian control where academic freedom, gender equality, and scientific inquiry are perceived as existential threats to the regime’s grip on power. The international community has repeatedly warned of the devastating long-term impact of such measures. Without recognition or adherence to global academic norms, Afghanistani degrees risk being devalued internationally, further marginalizing the country’s youth and jeopardizing future opportunities.
In this context, the Taliban are not merely reforming education they are dismantling the very pillars of intellectual progress and replacing them with a hollow, dogmatic framework. For a nation already devastated by war, economic collapse, and social repression, this ideological assault on higher education cements a bleak future marked by ignorance, repression, and isolation.
