No high school graduates in Afghan province since 20 yrs

Kabul, Feb 14 (IANS) Due to the lack of a proper education system in place, there have been no high school graduates across five districts in Afghanistan's Paktika province since the last 20 years, according to residents.The districts are Worombai, Tarwi, Dila Khoshamand, Naka and Barmal, TOLO News said in a report on Sunday.Paktika is located along the Durand Line -- the de-facto border between Pakistan and Afghnaistan. Since the past 20 years, the education and health sectors of Paktika were yet to be properly despite billions of dollars being provided by the international community as part of the humanitarian support to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the residents said that families whose economic conditions are good send their children to educational institutions in the provincial capital Sharana, but those who struggle with severe economic conditions cannot."No school has been constructed in our district. Our youth migrated to other countries," Tolo News quoted Zahid, a resident of Barmal district, as saying. "There was no school in Khoshamand district during the former government's time. The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) should construct us a school," said another resident Mohammad Daud. The tribal elders called on the Islamic Emirate to construct schools and provide educational opportunities for the residents of these districts. "We don't have any high school graduates in far areas and some districts of Paktika. We call on the Islamic Emirate officials to construct schools for us," said Abdul Rahim, a tribal elder in Khoshamand. The provincial education department confirmed the issue, saying that there were no high school graduations in the past 20 years in these districts. "Our focus is currently on the areas that lack absolute access to this right (education), we try to provide them their rights in a proper way," said the head of the Paktika education department.
--IANS ksk/

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