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Multiple challenges crippling Bamyan education sector

Multiple challenges crippling Bamyan education sector

author avatar
6 Sep 2017 - 00:19
Multiple challenges crippling Bamyan education sector
author avatar
6 Sep 2017 - 00:19

BAMYAN CITY (Pajhwok): Administrative corruption, weak administration, lack of buildings for schools, professional teachers and equipments are factors crippling the education process in central Bamyan province, a report said on Tuesday.

Published by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)’s regional office, the report cites corruption and weak handling of affairs that prevent the education system from being reformed and developed despite huge amount of aid from international community.

AIHRC’s Children Support and Development Department in Bamyan has compiled a report on challenges and problems children face in getting education.

The report said children faced issues ranging from lacking class rooms to professional teachers, educational equipment and clean drinking water in Bamyan City, the provincial capital, and districts.

According to the report, of total 339 schools in Bamyan, 63 have no buildings while some schools’ buildings are in terrible condition.

The human rights commission has warned the future of thousands of children is in danger in case the issues they face are neglected.

Figures with the Education Department show there are 339 high and higher secondary schools in Bamyan where 73,020 boys and 63,235 girls are taught by 3,476 teachers, including 805 female teachers. Another 1,600 teachers are required to fill the gap.

Mohammad Ayub Amiri, Bamyan’s acting provincial education director, confirmed AIHRC regional office’s findings as ‘reality’, saying the education department couldn’t solely cope with these problems.

“Many girl students remained deprived of education this year due to lack of opportunity to learn, because of poverty and other reasons; and this issue is worrisome for the provincial administration, the education department, civil society organizations and Bamyan people.”

He said all issues in the education system were not related to the provincial education department and asked the central government to decide on finding ways to resolve them.

“We admit that 60 schools and 2,000 class rooms are without proper buildings and we have various other problems, but efforts are being made to resolve them.”

This year about 100 villages of Bamyan were declared as “golden villages” as part of a UNICEF initiative to motivate people towards education.

The UNICEF’s Golden Villages Initiative focuses on handling births by skilled attendants and enrolling girls under 16 years of age in schools.
Bamyan inhabitants also confirmed problems in the education system.

Haji Ghulam Sakhi, father of a student, said problems in education system had no impact on people’s resolve to send their children to school. He said it was the government that had neglected the education sector in Bamyan.

“In our village, our schools have no building, our boys and girls attend schools in the open. This situation is unbearable for students and the government should do something.”

Iqbal, a student of one of the schools in Bamyan, said: “We are suffering from many problems: we don’t have teachers and textbooks reach us when the academic year is half gone and our school lacks a building.”

Mohammad Ibrahim Tola, a civil society activist, said problems in the education system should be first categorized as to which problem belonged to the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) and which to the Ministry of Education and the central government.

He warned if the education level remained the same, it would be catastrophic for Bamyan people and tantamount to snatching the right to education from Bamyan children.

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