No hostel: Uruzgan university students in trouble

TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): University students in central Uruzgan province complain they are facing numerous problems due to lack of hostel and their economic situation does not allow them to live in private hostel.

Uruzgan University has currently about 2,500 students in four faculties and students from other provinces are complaining about the lack of government dormitories.

These students say they cannot afford rooms outside the university and commuting to the university every day is their major problem that needs to be solved.

Abdul Saboor, a resident of Maidan Wardak province and a first-semester student at the university, said that he came to know after getting enrolled in Uruzgan that the university had no dormitory.

He said he was currently living in a rented room in Tarinkot city against more than five thousand afghanis per month, a sum beyond his affordability.

He said some students wanted to be migrated to other provinces as soon as their semesters end.

Another student Javed said the lack of a government dormitory had discouraged some students to continue their study.

“We cannot afford the rent of private rooms.”

A seventh-semester student, who requested anonymity, said a building in the university compound where students spent the night and used it as a dormitory was taken over by the Education Department two years ago and now no one was allowed to live in it.

According to him, the administrative work of the Education Department is currently being carried out in the building.

He added that for this reason, students from a number of remote areas and provinces had shifted to other provinces.

They want relevant authorities to pay special attention to this issue and build a dormitory on the university campus.

Meanwhile, Hafiz Samiullah Ikrimah, a spokesman for the Uruzgan governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the provincial government had shared the problem with the central administration.

He said residential facilities at educational centers were important and full efforts were being made to build them.

However, it was not clear when the problems of the university’s students would be resolved and when the central government would decide to build a dormitory.

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