Many Logar schools without buildings, textbooks

PUL-I-ALAM (Pajhwok): Around 50 percent of schools in central Logar province are without buildings and lack textbooks, education officials say.

Provincial education director Mohammad Akbar Stanikzai told Pajhwok Afghan News that a total of 305 schools and seminaries were active in the province.

But 118 of the schools have no buildings while 70 other schools lack surrounding walls, said Stanikzai.

“Besides these problems, 40 percent of students have no textbooks amid a shortage of teachers and teaching materials,” he said.

Stanikzai said he had shared these problems with the Ministry of Education and the governor’s house but the problems remained unaddressed.

Ajmal, a resident of Pajpai area of Kharwar district of Logar, told Pajhwok that all schools in their district were run in rented houses. “This is a major problem for students,” he said.

Shah Wali, a student at Haronkhel School in Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital, said that their school had no building.

“Our school has no specific location, we are frequently shifted from one corner of the village to another, it is a serious problem and should be resolved,” he said.

The student confirmed he and his classmates attended classes without having books, calling it another problem.

Logar provincial council deputy head, Abdul Wali Wakil, said it was government’s responsibility to provide a proper educational environment to students.

“The education process is going very well in this province but students are facing problems due to the lack of school buildings and shortage of text books”, he said.

The public representative claimed to have shared the problems with the MoE and the governor’s house for solution.

MoE spokesman Kabir Haqmal said the ministry had taken and was taking practical steps to construct buildings for schools in the whole of the country.

About text books, he said printing of textbooks had been announced for bidding to domestic printing houses.

“When the bidding process is completed, the books printing will start and the problem will be resolved,” he said.

For teachers’ shortage, he said an examination process was underway to hire 8,000 new teachers nationwide.

Around 135,000 students including 40,000 of them girls attend schools in Logar province.

mds/ma