Most schoolchildren in Ghor attend classes under open sky

FEROZKOH (Pajhwok): Education experts emphasize on creating a safe classroom environment so students feel better and excel. But many students in western Ghor province attend their classes under the open sky without roof, walls and chairs.

The issue of no building or damaged buildings of schools is not confined to Ghor province, but residents of other provinces have also been complaining about the issue since long.

Abdul Qadir, a resident of Aabpran area of Pasaband district, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “My children study in a school which has no building and the children take classes in an inappropriate environment.”

He called standard education environment the basic academic need. Most of the schools in their district are without buildings and other facilities, he said.

He added: “Aabparan and Sini schools of the district have no buildings. All our children sit on the dirt. There is a tent in Sini high school that has more than 500 students, five teachers and two peons.”

According to him, most primary schools in their area are without buildings and even tents and the students are forced to attend classes while sitting on the floor and under the scorching sun.

Qadir urged the caretaker government to pay serious attention to the issue of schools without buildings.

Meanwhile, Ghulam Haidar Rahimi, another resident of Pasaband district, also held similar views and said his children attended school in an inappropriate educational environment.

Criticizing the previous governments, he said in last 20 years, the international community had provided billions of dollars of aid to Afghanistan for the development of every sector, including education, but most of the money was wasted and all the sectors suffered, including the education.

He added: “We had repeatedly asked the education department to build a school for our children, hire qualified teachers, provide teaching materials, but they did not give even a single tent and all the problems remain unaddressed and we expect the Islamic emirate to resolve these problems.”

He said he had repeatedly discussed the issue of lack of buildings in districts with the Education Department, but no attention was paid to this matter.

Mohammad Hussain Amiri, father of students in Lal wa Sarjangal district of Ghor, said: “There are many schools in the district that are half-finished or no work has been done on them. All students have been studying in tents or without tents for years”.

Tahira, a 5th grader in one of the schools in the district, said their school had building, but it was not in good condition.

She said most of the time the students of their school fell sick due to the lack of standard classrooms.

Education experts in the province assail the previous governments for failing to pay attention to the education sector during the past 20 years.

They say no attention was paid to construction, reconstruction, maintenance of government facilities, especially schools in the province.

Nasrullah Amin, one of the experts in education and training in this province, said the educational environment must be standard and safe and all facilities must be available in this regard because having such an environment has a positive effect on students’ learning.

He added: “Unfortunately, due to insecurity in the past, some schools were turned into military bases or were destroyed due to conflicts. The gates of most of the schools were stolen and their windows were broken.”

Amin asked the caretaker government to pay serious attention to the state of schools and education in this province and prioritize construction and repair of school buildings.

Ghor department of education officials say there are more than 810 schools in the province and only 240 schools have buildings.

HafizullahMahfus, the education director, told Pajhwok: “240 of the schools in the province have buildings, 140 other schools have surrounding walls. During this solar year, 10 schools were repaired and renovated.”

He said 207 tents had been donated to the Department of Education in Ghor, which would be distributed to schools soon.

The education director added that due to people’s interest in education, most of the students study in half-built houses, in the open and under the shadow of walls.

According to him, they are working in coordination with NGOs and the central government to be able to build and restore more schools and provide students with better facilities.

sa/ma

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