Kabul: A couple of days after US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West’s remarks on girls’ education in Afghanistan, officials of the Afghan ministry of education promised to reopen schools for all age groups, both girls and boys, at the start of the new academic year (March 21), according to media reports.
Thomas West, while speaking to BBC Pashto, had said that the US and international community intends to pay salaries of school teachers if the Taliban let girls return to schools.
The education ministry officials said they will decide on girls’ return to schools without considering external pressures, as they asserted that the schools were temporarily closed across Afghanistan and will be opened by next spring.
“If the international community and US pay the salaries of teachers or not, we, as the government, will open schools in the spring and this decision is not linked with the demands of the US and international community,” said Aziz Ahmad Reyan, head of the Publication and Public Relations of the MoE.
“The ministry of higher education is making efforts to open universities very soon,” said Ahmad Taqqi, spokesman of the ministry of higher education.
Girls in grades 7-12 were barred from school after the return of the Islamic Emirate to power in Afghanistan in mid-August, which drew strong protests internally and abroad.
“If the demands of the international community over the reopening of schools are not considered, we will witness a government collapse,” said Khalil Ahmad Kanjo, education expert. AFP
