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AYLA

Impact dashboard

Everything we know about what this programme has done

No rounded-up marketing numbers. Every figure on this page is traceable to a report AYLA published, and the source is printed underneath it.
Last updated May 2025

Headline figures

The programme at a glance

  • 5,000+

    Students reached

    Afghan students — overwhelmingly girls locked out of school and university — have taken an AYLA course since the online programme began.

    Source: AYLA Project Report, May 2025

  • 14

    Provinces served

    Learners join from across Afghanistan, plus students who have been displaced into Pakistan.

    Source: Round 5 report and course evaluations

  • 40+

    Free Duolingo coupons

    Free Duolingo English Test coupons awarded since 2023, letting students certify their English for university admission.

    Source: AYLA Project Report, May 2025

  • 11

    Volunteer-taught classes

    Subjects ran in Round 5 alone — every one of them taught by a volunteer teacher.

    Source: Round 5 report, August 2023

  • 300

    Students in Round 5

    Enrolled across eleven simultaneous classes between June and September 2023.

    Source: Round 5 report, August 2023

  • $5,100

    Cost of running Round 5

    Granted by Ideas Beyond Border — covering internet packages for roughly 300 girls and 10 volunteers.

    Source: Round 5 report, August 2023

  • 100

    Students at Youth Summit for Peace

    University students took part in AYLA's two-day peace and education summit in Balkh and Baghlan, August 2019.

    Source: Round 5 report, background section

  • 4

    Rounds of coupons delivered

    Four selection rounds for the Duolingo English Test initiative have closed, each with an open application process.

    Source: AYLA Project Report, May 2025

Reach

Where students join from

AYLA's classes are remote, which means a single volunteer teacher reaches students across the country at once. Some students have been displaced into Pakistan and continue attending from there.
  • Kabul
  • Herat
  • Balkh
  • Kandahar
  • Badakhshan
  • Bamyan
  • Baghlan
  • Ghor
  • Ghazni
  • Wardak
  • Panjshir
  • Parwan
  • Nimruz
  • Takhar

Source: Round 5 report and Round 5 course evaluations

Duolingo English Test initiative

43 coupons awarded, 42 tests completed

Four rounds since 2023. Recipients have gone on to higher education institutions across the United States and Europe — the clearest outcome AYLA can point to.
How the initiative works

  • Round 1

    9/10 completed

    10 candidates received coupons; 9 completed the Duolingo English Test.

  • Round 2

    9/9 completed

    9 students sat and passed the test with their allocated coupons.

  • Round 3

    20/20 completed

    20 applicants passed the test, funded entirely by individual donors.

  • Round 4

    4/4 completed

    4 applicants selected through AYLA's competitive application process took the test on donated coupons.

Source: AYLA Project Report, May 2025

Who our students are

Survey data from the Round 5 evaluations

AYLA surveys every cohort at the end of a round. The Computer Skills questionnaire is the one with a full published demographic breakdown, so it is reproduced here as-is rather than blended into a headline average.

Computer Skills cohort — Round 5 evaluation

Source: Round 5 report, data analysis section

Highest level of education

  • Bachelor's degree57.1%
  • High school diploma or less28.6%
  • Some college or associate degree14.3%

Primary language at home

  • Dari42.9%
  • Pashto28.6%
  • Other languages28.5%

Self-rated effort in the course

  • Very good57.1%
  • Excellent42.9%

What students said worked

  • Live online classes rather than pre-recorded video
  • Interactive exercises students could practise between sessions
  • Clear learning objectives set out at the start of each course
  • Teachers who stayed available and answered questions outside class

What students asked us to fix

  • !Technical support for students on unreliable connections
  • !Flexible scheduling for learners juggling work and family
  • !More practical assignments, especially in Graphic Design
  • !Longer course durations so full syllabuses can be completed

These are published because they are the honest half of the evaluation. The first two are funding problems, and they are what donations go on.

Outcomes

Where students go from here

  • University admission abroad

    Students who certified their English with a donated Duolingo coupon have gone on to higher education institutions in the United States and Europe.

  • German-language pathways

    Students in the German class are working toward B1 and B2 certification, with test fees offered by their own volunteer teachers.

  • Remote, paid work

    Graphic design and computer skills courses exist to open remote work — one of the few routes to financial independence available to women inside Afghanistan.

  • Teaching the next round

    AYLA's moderators are largely former students. Finishing a course is often the first step toward running one.

Read the stories behind these numbers

Make the next number bigger

Round 6 needs data packages and test coupons.

The figures on this page exist because someone paid for a month of mobile data or a $65 test fee. That is the entire mechanism.

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