New admissions in Badghis universities down by 50pc

QALA-I-NAW (Pajhwok): Fresh admissions in the private higher education institution of western Badghis province declined by 50 percent and the universities owners warned against the closure of their institutions if the situation remained the same.

Sayed Mahmood Fahim Intizar, the director of Hanzala Higher Education Institutions, situated in the provincial capital, told Pajhwok Afghan News: “In comparison to the previous year, the number of the students of the private universities has dropped by 50 percent”.

“We enrolled about 100 new students in our university during this year, while the number the enrolled students reached to 200 last year.” he said.

He said in addition to boys enrollment the university enrolled 60 female students last year as well, but due to the ban on girls’ education imposed by the caretaker government, no single female student was enrolled during this year while the female students of the previous years are already waiting.

Sharafudin Majidi, the finance assistant of Hikmat Higher Education Institution, has also expressed concern over the 50 percent decrease of the universities students.

Currently majority of the lecture halls of Hikmat Higher Education Institutions are empty, he said.

“We recruited on 132 new students during this year, while the number of the new students reached to 280 last year.”  Majidi said.

The Hikmat Higher Education Institution enrolled 50 female students last year, while their number is just zero this year, the source said.

Majidi said, the operation of the private universities is related to the number of the new students’ enrollment, such institutions function as there students for them.

If the number of the new students remained low, the universities would be threatened by closure, he said.

Nisar Ahmad Akbari, an education analyst, believed the low enrollment in the universities will affect badly on the governance, economics and politics of the country.

As the number of the students’ enrollment degraded in educational institutions, the level of literacy degrades as well, Akbari added.

He called for the serious attention in this regard and believed if this situation continued, it would have devastating results.

Akbari added: “Naturally, if the number of literate people decreased, the problems in politics, economics and governance would increase as well.”

But Matiullah Muttaqi, the provincial head of Information and Culture Department said, the government has provided the youth with jobs opportunities.

Muttaqi said, majority of the positions in the offices were vacant and the government announced the vacancies to be filled on the bases of merit system.

He said: “Currently majority of the positions in the offices are vacant while some of them were announced several times which meant that youth have opportunities for working”.

According to the officials figure 1,800 male students in Badghis getting higher education in two private and one public university.

Aw/nh