As post-Taliban Afghanistan moves toward the establishment of a viable educational system, key stakeholders and donors are faced with the formidable challenge of how to most rapidly implement teacher training within an environment of diverse, changing, and largely unassessed training needs. The current article explores the dilemmas inherent in establishing a national teacher training programme which precedes comprehensive monitoring, evaluation, and needs assessment, as well as the pressing arguments in favour of such action. Utilising data from a pilot teacher training programme which took place in two provinces of northern Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, this article examines the direct responses of local teachers to the training programme; describes the problematic gap which they described between theoretical objectives and practical application; and discusses the vital relevance of creating a training programme which sufficiently bridges this educational gap. (Contains 1 note.)