An Afghan mentor teaches ANA soldiers from all over the country in a classroom about topography. Oct 4, 2010. Photo: Adrian MacNair.

KABUL – Under the guidance and assistance of Canadian military mentors, the Junior Officer Command and Staff training program in Kabul [JOCSC] is expected to be able to produce over 200 senior officers per year by 2011.

Although the mentoring is done by Canadian, German and Turkish officers, JOCSC is managed by Major General Kaz Mohammad and Colonel Abdul Aziz in keeping with the “Afghan-led” mandate of development and governance.

The Junior Officer college program was established a year ago by Canada using mentoring and training techniques that can be used to train highly skilled military leaders for the Afghan National Army [ANA]. The program uses the most modern counter-insurgency training in a two-part course that spans a total of 20 weeks.

The first part of the course, at six weeks, is composed of 50 students at present and will train ANA soldiers to become company commanders. The second part of the course, 14 weeks, consists of 188 students who can go on to be operations officers at a Kandak [battalion] level.

JOCSC initially had much difficulty in producing quality officers to be redeployed in combat against the insurgents, but expansion and construction has allowed exponential growth in the college. Derek Fraser, head of the construction team at the college, said that the Canadian government has invested $6.1 million in the expansion facility, slated for completion June 7, 2011.

Although the expansion is taking place inside the JOCSC compound in downtown Kabul, there was unexploded ordinance that had to be removed before construction could begin. The buildings will also be engineered for Earthquakes.

There are prerequisites for ANA soldiers who want to participate in the college program. A soldier needs to have had at least two years in battlefield combat against insurgent forces, and a minimum of a high school diploma, a tricky proposition in a country with a very low literacy rate.

When soldiers arrive, 95 per cent don’t know map grading or location finding. Mentors provide them with maps and compasses and teach them topography and triangulation techniques, essential for battlefield commanders.

A school day typically consists of six hours of either tactics, staff officer responsibility, decision-making, Kandak exercises, or other lessons. Although Islamic studies are present in the course, Major Ahd Fatah says it’s important to combat the propaganda from the Taliban that the military is not Islamic, and therefore not legitimate.

Canada expects the college to be self-sufficient by July of 2011 – the end of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan – and will have enough Afghan officers mentoring Afghans that ISAF mentors will no longer be required.

JOCSC is also well aware of the rules of international law and ethics of warfare. The Red Cross [ICRC] comes in and teaches officers for a portion of their course. This is especially important for maintaining a high degree of professionalism in an army attempting to emulate western practices.

Attrition rates are also comparable to western military colleges. The college lost only one officer last year to a private security company. In order to ensure a lower attrition rate, there is an instructor to student ratio of one to 10.

The surge for producing more competent and highly trained military personnel is evident in Afghanistan. Beyond the junior officers program, an Afghan National Defense University is being constructed in Qargha. NATO is aiming for a combined total of 304,000 security forces by 2011, with half of those coming from the ANA.

The next step for JOCSC will be to get experienced graduates of the program to come back and mentor the next batch of officers. In this way, both NATO and the Afghan government hope that Afghans leading Afghans will create the much-desired stabilization that has been lacking in the country since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.