POBNEWS24, Desk report Dhaka, Mar 16, 2024 : Taliban authorities may close girls’ secondary schools permanently, an Afghan education official said. Giving importance to religious schools known as Madrasas as an alternative education system.
In 2022, the Taliban closed girls’ secondary schools, citing “religious and cultural” concerns.
In support of the ban, Taliban officials have stressed that they are working to create a suitable educational environment for older female students.
“Schools may no longer be open as they were during the takeover,” an education ministry official told UNI on Tuesday, referring to the US military presence in Afghanistan from 2001-2021.
“Ethically and ideologically there is no difference between schools and madrassas,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Taliban has banned its members from talking to UNIs.
He further said, “If education is the aim, it can be achieved in madrasas as well as in schools.So the emphasis should not be on school alone.”
However, the United Nations and human rights activists are concerned that madrassas, which emphasize religious education, will never fully replace traditional schools.
“I am concerned that the quality of education in these institutions does not adequately prepare girls or boys for higher-level education and professional training to join the effective workforce of the future,” UN Director-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the Security Council this month.
Girls secondary schools have been closed for almost two years.
According to the United Nations, the number of newly registered madrassas across the country has increased significantly.
According to the United Nations, there are more than 7,000 registered madrassas in Afghanistan.
There are about 380 madrasas for girls.
US-based Afghan women’s education activist Pashtana Durrani said the Taliban had already turned schools into religious madrassas.
“They have created their own system,” Durrani told UNI, expressing concern about the possibility of extremist teachings in madrassas.
The Taliban are accused of practicing widespread “gender discrimination”.
Its aim is to keep women out of most public spheres.
330,000 Afghan girls dropped out of school after passing their sixth-grade exams last year.
Aid agencies say they are among the 3.7 million girls barred from secondary school education.
“The consequences of this short-sighted decision are far-reaching,” Salam al-Janabi, a UNICEF spokesman, told UNI.
