I u-landene som sådan går i snit 89 procent af børnene i skole – men sådan er det ikke i Afghanistan
KABUL, 12 September 2011 (IRIN): Despite billions of dollars in aid and government funding over the past decade, Afghanistan still has about four million school-age children out of school, officials say.
– Overall our biggest challenge is our operating budget, which is not enough to cover the salaries of our teachers… and of the roughly 14.000 primary and secondary schools in the country, some 7.000 lack buildings, forcing children to study in the open, under trees or in tents, Education Ministry spokesman Aman Iman said.
Mir Khan (10) a pupil at a primary school in Argu District in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, said his school did not have a building or even a wall around the compound, making learning difficult.
– My class is very close to the main road – in a tent. Sometimes even stray dogs get in, Khan told IRIN, adding:
– Passing cars blow dust into our tent, which gets into our clothes, hair and even notebooks. I really do not want to go to school, but what can I do? My family is forcing me to go.
The Education Ministry’s budget is 15 percent of the government’s budget, but 67 percent of all civil servants come under the Education Ministry, placing intolerable strains on the ministry’s budget, said Iman.
– We have made good progress in the last 10 years with support from our international partners, but still it is not enough, he told IRIN, adding that the shortage of professional teachers was “another serious problem”.
In 2002, Afghanistan had 3.400 primary and secondary schools, but that number has risen to 14.000 countrywide.
The goal, according to the Afghan Education Strategy, is to increase that to 17.000 by 2014 and to 23.000 schools by 2020. By 2020, every Afghan child should have access to school, says the strategy. Observers say this is a tall order.
Currently, only eight million of the 12 million school-age children are in school, according to the Education Ministry.
Conflict
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