However, NATO’s Training Mission literacy program is focused on bringing Afghan soldiers up to a third-grade reading, writing, and number recognition level, which is enough to read a simple manual or pamphlet, understand how much they are getting paid, and account for their people and equipment on paper.
According to Caldwell, although the literacy rate among recruits remains low, prospective officer-position holders are literate, which he defined as being able to read, write, and recognize numbers at a third-to-sixth-grade level.
Caldwell mentioned that the NATO training mission has put in place “mandatory literacy training” that “did not exist last year.”
He went on to highlight that there is a “94 percent pass rate” of the Afghan Ministry of Education first grade test among the Afghan recruits who undergo the initial 64 hours of literacy training provided to them, after they are tested for literacy upon coming into the ANSF.