Contact Admin. Progress in girls' education, one of the rare Afghan success stories of the last nine years and vital to the long-term development and stability of the country, is under threat, 16 aid agencies including Oxfam and CARE warned today in a new report.
The report High Stakes found that gains in girls' education are slipping away as a result of poverty, growing insecurity, a lack of trained teachers, neglect of post-primary education and poorly equipped schools.
The findings are based on a survey of more than 1, girls, parents and teachers in 17 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. There are now 2. While the numbers are encouraging, Afghan girls still face many barriers to receiving an education. The quality of education is highly variable, school conditions are often poor and nearly half a million girls who are enrolled do not regularly attend school.
The agencies are calling for renewed efforts by the Afghan government and donors to keep girls in school and improve the quality of the education they receive. But the reality is the education system is facing its greatest challenge since We're seeing a rollback of some of the recent gains made in getting young, motivated Afghan girls into school. This is an appalling waste of talent and potential," said Neeti Bhargava, Oxfam's country programme manager in Afghanistan.
Those interviewed said poverty was the single biggest obstacle to girls' education and the main factor in causing girls to drop out of school. This was followed closely by early or forced marriage and insecurity. More than 40 per cent of interviewees said girls had to leave school to help support their families or because their families were too poor to pay for necessities such as transport or uniforms.
