VIDEO: When we teach Afghan children to read, we are teaching them to reject the extremism of the Taliban.

In a recent op-ed in The Toronto Star, the president of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), Patricia Aldana, suggested that the international community along with Afghanistan could "Taliban-proof Afghanistan by teaching children to read."

This recommendation might perhaps contain the most strategic, stabilizing, forceful antidote to war that is possible, in Afghanistan or anywhere. Too often we think of “peace-building” as men in suits sitting around a table drawing up accords, negotiating a peace deal, and trying to bring feuding parties together in an effort to resolve violent conflict. Yet where peace building truly happens is inside classrooms, in teacher training institutes, in the building of village libraries, and in the binding of books. It happens when kids have the right and the opportunity to read.

The Taliban were birthed from the lethal cocktail of an impoverished Afghan refugee population easily recruited into radical Islamic madrasah boarding schools that rose up in the thousands in response to the Pakistani government’s failure to create a viable basic education system. There, in exchange for a bed, food and free “education,” boys and young men faced an extremist and violent religious ideology, militant training, systemic rape, and the denial of contact with any females, even from their own mothers. Misogyny festered along with xenophobia, a fanatical brand of Islam, and intolerance for political, ethnic, and religious diversity. In light of the scale of the thing – it is estimated that there are more than 50,000 madrasahs in Pakistan – the outcome was somewhat predictable.

Despite the challenges, since 2002, extraordinary gains have been made in Afghanistan, including the return of millions of girls to school, the beginnings of a functional primary health-care system, the availability of micro-credit to women, a parliamentary quota for women MPs, and promising economic growth. Having closely followed developments in Afghanistan since 1996, I have watched in awe the changes that have occurred over the last seven years. These include changes to the physical landscape – as reconstruction takes place, roads are paved, and Afghans have cultivated gardens and parks – as well as to the psychological landscape. People are free from the oppression of the Taliban, women take part increasingly in public life, and the arts and culture sector are on an exciting rebound. It is an entirely different place than it was in any part of the 1990s.

Yet for what the education sector has in quantity, it lacks in quality. Capacity to deliver remains poor in the Ministry of Education – few pupils have ever seen a textbook before, few schools have even rudimentary science laboratory supplies, and most teachers have no post-secondary education. International donors are indeed supporting education, not the least of which is the Canadian government, but they are failing to see a robust investment into the education sector as the solution to the country’s insecurity over the long-run. The development of the education sector has been painfully slow.

I think it’s imperative that an international security force remain on the ground in Afghanistan for at least a decade to come, and that should include representation from Canada. This is part of the solution in that it will provide much needed breathing space to build the foundations of a long-term solution: the establishment of effective, quality education, health care, good governance, legal reform, poverty alleviation, and space for the growth of civil society. But the Canadian government, and other donor governments who want to see a stable, peaceful Afghanistan must begin to explicitly make the link between long-term security and quality education; and they must be in it for the long haul.

Education is the most important place donor governments can put their money. But it will take years, if not decades, of commitment and there must be clear measures of accountability for results. It’s not enough that schools are open and pupils – girls and boys – are in their seats. More must be done, and soon. By investing in a quality education system in Afghanistan, Canada will help prevent future wars; and by maintaining a military presence on the ground now and beyond 2011, they can help stop this one.