GHAZNI CITY (PAN): About 30,000 boys in the Maqour district of southern Ghazni province whose schools were closed for a year are now back in class after tribal elders held talks with the Taliban.
At the beginning of the academic year last March, schools were closed due to threats by some factions of the Taliban, but with the help of tribal elders and religious scholars, they reopened again in May.

This month, the boys have been taking their exams.

Gholam Farid, a student of 10^th grade at Bazergani school, says the examinations passed without any problem.  He says there were fewer students attending than the previous year, before the Taliban shut the schools, but that they were happy to be back in school.

Another student of the school, who did not want to give his name, says the Taliban are now overseeing the education process. He says a commission of teachers has been appointed by the Taliban to check the students exam papers and accord marks.

All but one of the schools in the district had been closed from the beginning of the previous school year, and then a few months later, Maqour high school was also closed, says one elder who asks his name not be used.

Girls schools have been closed for the past six years in 12 districts of the province; but it was only in March last year that the Taliban started to attack boys schools. Teachers and schools began receiving threatening letters; two schools were torched and a headmaster killed.
Abdul Wali Khanzada, who is a member of the provincial council, has also accused education officials of telling the government that the schools had reopened and then pocketing their salaries.
Khanzada didnt identify the officials, but says that because of the security situation, no one from his office was able to go to the district to check.
Husni Mubark Azizi, the education director in the district, confirmed the schools had reopened, however, he denies they have been shut for a year. He says they closed only at the end of the last year.

During that time, education officials did request extra wages for the teachers, but that was so they could continue to teach boys privately, he says.

However, a teacher in Maqour, who did not want to be named, says that when the schools were closed, all of the teachers were out of work.
He says some went back to their family farms or gardens, but many others remained unemployed.
Maqour district is located on the Kandahar-Kabul Highway, about 100 kilometres to the south of the provincial capital, Ghazni City, making finding employment difficult for the out-of-work teachers.
Sahib Khan, the district chief, says that in some districts, such as Giro and Gilan, where security is very bad, schools have been closed for about five years.
In Maqour, about 30,000 boys were studying in six high schools, seven middle schools and five primary schools before they were all closed.
Now, with help of tribal elders, the schools have re-opened, police chief, Brig. Gen. Khail Baz Sherzad, says.
Sherzad says there had been threats to teachers and students in the area from the Taliban.

Although the Taliban's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, says the group does not oppose education, other factions have been carrying out their own threats.

In Karbagh district, for example, where the Taliban has complete control, there are more than 52 schools, all of which are open, Mujahid says.

Sherzad says the threats by other factions of the Taliban are part of a wider campaign of attacking government targets. The militants have not only burnt down schools, but also clinics and bridges in an attempt to cause chaos, he says.

Although the boys are back at school, they are not free from problems just yet. Only four of the 18 schools have buildings, and students in the other 14 have to study in rented homes or in the open air.

hm/cas