Kunar public schools face shortage of 1,800 teachers

ASADABAD (Pajhwok): Education Department officials in eastern Kunar province say 1,800 more teachers, including 759 females, should be appointed to overcome their shortage in public sector schools of the province.

They say they have shared this problem with the Ministry of Education, but it remains unresolved.

Kunar education director Mohibullah Haidari told Pajhwok Afghan News the number of students and classes were increasing the province, but they faced shortage of teachers.

He said: “Currently we need 1,800 more teachers, including 759 female teachers, for general education.”

He added they had shared this problem with the Ministry of Education and got a promise to solve it, but no practical action could be taken so far.

Last year, a shortage of textbooks marred the education process, but this year the problem had been solved, Haidari said.

According to him: “We were facing a shortage of about 6.1 billion textbooks, but this year 800,000 books have been delivered to us and more have been promised.”

He added if the problem of shortage of teachers was addressed and new teachers were appointed, the education process would also improve.

On the other hand, some students said apart from their own studies, they also taught to students of lower classes.

Hitayatullah, a 6th grade student at Mukli Middle School in Asadabad, said their school was facing a shortage of teachers that was why they had to teach students of lower classes.

He said: “There are a few teachers in our school who cannot teach all students.”

According to the Department of Education, currently 4,272 female and male teachers are teaching in government schools and about 20,000 students studying in these schools.

kk/ma