Comparison

China vs Afghanistan

Side-by-side comparison of how these places approach childhood.

At a glance

China

In China, grandparents raise an estimated 90 million 'left-behind children' while parents work in distant cities.

Mass internal migration has created a generation where rural grandparents are the primary caregivers โ€” reshaping family structure at an unprecedented scale.

Afghanistan

Since 2021, Afghan girls over 12 are banned from attending school.

The Taliban's return ended two decades of progress in girls' education, affecting 1.4 million secondary-school girls.

How they compare
School systems
East Asian model

China

A nationally unified curriculum with intense academic pressure. The gaokao university entrance exam defines life outcomes. Recent 'double reduction' policy (2021) banned most for-profit tutoring for school-age children, dramatically reshaping the education landscape.

Gender-restricted crisis model

Afghanistan

Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, girls above grade 6 are banned from school and women from universities. Boys' education continues but with revised curriculum emphasizing religious studies. Before 2021, enrollment had risen from near-zero for girls to 3.5 million.

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โ† China profile ยท Afghanistan profile โ†’