Officials for Ministry of Education (MoE) of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan say mechanism and plans for reopening girls’ schools in the country have not been finalized so far.
A spokesperson of the ministry of education says nobody within the Islamic Emirate (IEA) is against the education of girls.
“There’s nobody in high or low level of the Islamic Emirate (IEA) to be against the education of girls in the country, but there are still a range of issues in mechanism, plan, method, policy, timing and procedure on which the leadership of the IEA have not reached agreement,” said Aziz Ahmad Rayan, a spokesperson of the MoE.
He informed of some progress in mechanism and plan for reopening of the schools, but saying that they have not been finalized yet.
“The Ministry of Education has done much work in this sector, but some processes are not completed for a year, rather, it takes years and the issue of schools is not a matter of one day and one night as Afghanistan is a traditional country where there are many issues and this is not the place to discuss them in detail,” the MoE spokesperson stressed.
According the ministry of education, there are currently 17,780 schools in Afghanistan, of which 15,083 are public and 2,697 are private. The total number of school students across the country has reached to 10 million, of which 6 million are boys and 4 million are girls.
The ministry also informed that the number of teachers in Afghanistan’s schools is 242,000, of which 92,000 are women. Besides, the ministry has so far registered 20,000 religious scholars.
On the other hand, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in its recent report has informed that 3 million girls have been deprived of going to schools across the country, saying that this has caused that Afghanistan’s economy has seen $500 million loss.
According to UNICEF, Afghanistan economy will see billion in dollars loss if the schools remain closed in coming years. For the past one year, officials of the ministry of education have been working to reopen girls’ schools across the country.
The Islamic Emirate (IEA) leadership has repeatedly spoken about the reopening of the schools but the specific time of reopening of girls’ schools is still uncertain.
Education experts believe that the education of girls is necessary as it’s the right of girls to seek education and is on the other hand compulsory in Islam.
The Holy Quran has further stressed on the importance of seeking knowledge. The leadership of the IEA has also stressed that they will reopen all girls’ schools across the country after they finalize plans and mechanisms for reopening of the schools.
Zarabi
Mechanism, plans for reopening girls’ schools not yet finalized
