All girls will return soon to school, UN assured

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Taliban have promised allowing all Afghan girls very soon to attend secondary schools across the country, says a senior UN official.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi, who visited Kabul last week, said on Friday girls in Balkh, Jawzjan, Samangan, Kunduz and Uruzgan were already going to secondary school.

He told reporters at the UN headquarters that the Taliban’s education minister had told him they were preparing a framework to allow all girls to continue their schooling beyond the sixth grade.

The framework should be published within two months, Abdi believed. “As I speak to you, millions of girls of secondary school age are missing out on education for the 27th consecutive day.”

The official added they were urging the Taliban not to wait. “Any day that we wait – it’s a day lost for those girls that are out of school.”

Abdi said in every meeting he pressed the Taliban to let girls resume their learning, calling it “critical for the girls themselves and for the country as a whole”.

According to Abdi, if all girls are allowed to attend secondary school, efforts must be made to overcome resistance from conservatives.

During his Kabul visit, the UNICEF deputy chief said he also went to a children’s hospital “and was shocked to see how packed it was with malnourished children.”

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