Contracts for 5 school buildings signed

KABUL minster on Tuesday signed agreements for five school buildings with representatives of eight private construction companies in Kabul.

The buildings, to be constructed in Kandahar, Ghazni, Kabul, Nangarhar, Maidan Wardak and Helmand provinces, would cost about 49 million afghanis ($1.073 million), the minister said.

As many as 3,000 students would benefit from the projects, Ghulam Farooq Wardak told a news conference after signing the agreements.

Of 14,000 schools across the country, 50 percent have proper buildings, with the rest operating in rented houses and tents, he told a questioner.

This year 550 schools would have proper buildings, some of which would be constructed with the development budget of the ministry and others with financial support from the international community, he said.

Over the last nine years, 7,000 school buildings had been constructed, the minister added. He announced 50 percent of work on basic needs, including roads, water supply and drainage of the town for teachers in Kabul had been completed. Teachers could start work on their land plots.

Wardak also signed an agreement with the deputy minister of urban development, Sultan Hussain Hesari, on distributing land plots to the 1,100 teachers who have already received documents.

The Ministry of Urban Development planned to identify state land across the country and distribute plots to all teachers, Hesari said.  About two million acres of land has been grabbed by powerful individuals and warlords, says the Afghanistan Land Authority.

So far 30,000 plots have already been distributed to teachers and 50,000 would be allotted this year, the education minister said. There are about 190,000 teachers employed by the Ministry of Education.

frm/mud