Kabul: A senior official from the United Nations has said on Friday that Taliban will soon be making a formal announcement about the opening of schools for girls beyond the secondary level in the country.
While interacting with the media persons in UN headquarters, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF Omar Abdi - who recently visited Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul – said that five of the country’s 34 provinces have already allowed girls to attend secondary school. These provinces include Balkh, Jawzjn and Samangan from the northwest, and Kunduz and Urozgan in northeast and southeast respectively.
Abdi also revealed that the new education minister of Taliban has assured him that the government is working on a framework to enable girls to continue their education beyond the sixth grade, which will be officially notified soon.
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Abdi also said that not allowing girls to go to school is critical for their future and the country as a whole. He also revealed that in every meeting with the Taliban he urged them to allow girls to resume their education by allowing them to attend school.
He further mentioned that when the Taliban were ousted by the US forces in 2001, only around one million Afghan children were attending school. However, during the past 20 years the figure rose to about 10 million, including 4 million girls. Besides this, the number of schools has also risen from 6,000 to 18, 000 during the US occupation, he added.
Additionally, Abdi added that “education gains of the past two decades must be strengthened and not rolled back.”
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