Abdul Wassay Arian is currently the General Director Policy and Planning at the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2011, he was a senior advisor to the minister of education on curriculum development and administrative reform. Prior to this, he has worked as director and in senior management positions of NGOs in Afghanistan for 15 years. He has also served as schoolteacher for two years.

With the extensive knowledge of Afghanistan history, culture and geography, and high analytical skills for program development, policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation he has led multi-sectoral programs and has long experience in education, institutional reforms, community development, women empowerment and emergency relief.

He has a Master degree in Architecture from Kabul Polly-technique Institute and a Master degree in Development Policies and Practices in Fragility and Conflict Management from Graduate Institute of Geneva.

He is one of the main authors of National Education Strategic Plans (NESP I-III) of the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan and has contributed to many other papers.