SCA sets up schools for rural children in northeast

TAKHAR (Pajhwok): Officials of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) say the committee has established local schools for uneducated children in rural areas in the northeastern zone of the country.

The committee says the schools have been operational in Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces since 2005 to improve the skills of rural children.

Qudratullah Attayee, a spokesman for SCA in the northwest, said that the schools had been set up mostly in remote areas with impassable routes where government agencies could not provide quality education.

He said that 31,481 children received education in the local schools in the mentioned provinces.

He added that SCA also helped 21,154 students get enrolled in public schools since the beginning of the program.

Attayee said that most of these students were children with disabilities, nomads and girls who had been deprived of going to school. Students learn for up to the sixth grade in these schools and then are introduced to public schools, he said.

The establishment of local schools by SCA in the northeastern zone has not only provided hope for children deprived of literacy, but has also provided employment opportunities for a number of educated people.

Atiqullah, a resident of Baghlan province, termed the establishment of local schools a positive development, saying that the villagers actually needed such a program so that their children could be educated in the future.

Simagul, a teacher in one of the local schools, says she has been a teacher for six years and receives a monthly salary of 8,000 afghanis, which helped her meet her family’s needs.

MusawerQaderi, an education expert in Takhar, told Pajhwok that SCA program for promoting education was a positive step and hoped the program would continue in the future.

Education officials in Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces welcomed SCA programs in Afghanistan, particularly in education sector.

They consider the establishment of local classes by SCA as a positive step towards literacy of poor and rural children.

mds/ma