UNICEF: Massive return to Afghan schools

July 12, 2002 Posted: 1:33 PM EDT (1733 GMT)
http://fyi.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teachers.ednews/07/12/afghan.schools.reut/index.html

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- The U.N. Children's Fund announced this week that there has been a "massive return" of Afghan children -- both boys and girls -- to schools around the country since they reopened earlier this year after the fall of the Taliban.

Nearly 1.25 million children had returned to school since March in 20 provinces, or two-thirds of the country, surveyed by the UNHCR and the ministry of education.

"If the survey continues to show a similar trend from the rest of the country, UNICEF believes that the final number of children in the classroom will exceed all expectations," spokesman Edward Carwardine told reporters.

He said 30 percent of children attending schools were girls, who were banned from education during the dour rule of the Taliban, which ended last year.

Even in the deeply conservative southern city of Kandahar, where girls' enrolment even before the Taliban era was negligible, about 10 percent of students are girls.

"This is a major step forward," Carwardine said.

But UNICEF is still appealing for $57 million for this year, saying the $33 million received to date had almost all been used up.

The priority needs are teacher training, books, stationery and proper sanitation.

President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday the bulk of the war-torn country's annual budget would be spent on health and education, and that the defence and interior ministries would have to cut back to help out.

Although schools are reopening, children have become an established part of the work force in a country where many traditional breadwinners have been maimed or killed in 23 years of war.