Afghan girls return to school

Associated Press

JALALABAD, Afghanistan – Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a bombed-out classroom, students hunched over their notebooks Thursday as their teachers paced in front of them, giving lectures.

It was like any other morning at Nasran school in Jalalabad, but there was a key difference: For the first time since the Taliban took power in 1996, the students were girls.

Hundreds of girls were at school for the first time in their lives. The teachers did their best to calm them, but learning with others, instead of alone or in small groups at home, proved to be a powerful distraction.

Throughout Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, 3,500 girls have registered for classes and 320 female teachers have returned to work, said Abdul Ghani Hidayat, director of education in the new post-Taliban provincial administration.

Hidayat said his office has reopened 284 schools in the province since the Taliban withdrew on Nov. 7, and 150,000 students have returned to school.

“Education is very important for all Afghan people, because we know the value of literacy,” he said, his office filled with a dozen former teachers who lost their jobs or quit during Taliban rule and now await assignments.

After taking power, the Taliban excluded girls and changed the curriculum to emphasize Islamic studies, said Abdul Hanan, a teacher since 1970. Islamic scholars, or mullahs, took over most classes, prompting him to quit, Hanan said.

“They taught the big Islamic texts to the small children, who couldn’t understand them,” Hanan said. “We will go back to the old curriculum.”

Farhad, a 16-year-old who uses only one name, said he is glad the mullahs have left and that the new teachers spend as much time on his favorite subjects – chemistry, physics and English – as they do on Islam. He said he is also happy his two sisters are at school.

“I am very happy about the girls because we can both rebuild our country. I want all Afghans to be literate,” said Farhad, who attends Nasran’s afternoon classes for boys and wants to be a doctor.

Girls at the school were not allowed to talk to foreign men, in keeping with local tradition.

Even though education is free in Nangahar province, most children do not attend school because they must help support their families, Hanan said. In the center of Jalalabad, young boys labor in carpentry workshops, cotton gins and food markets, learning trades while earning money. Some work as militiamen.

Hanan said schools are trying to offer classes for working children, but until there is less poverty, most Afghan children will not get a formal education.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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