Wakil Ahmad Moutawakel, a spokesman for the Kandahar education department, said their office received a letter from the Ministry of Education ordering classes at all private local educational institutions in Kandahar to stop until further notice.

According to the letter, a delegation has been appointed by the Education Ministry to review the “projects and activities” of all educational institutions in Kandahar and Helmand, and for this purpose the educational departments of these provinces have been ordered to suspend activities of non-university  private education, which includes private grade schools, private high schools and private post-secondary education centers.

“There is nothing to be worried about. The negotiations are still continuing to solve the problems in this section. There is nothing to be worried about because it is around 450 to 500 educational classes,” Mutawakel said.

“Our activities in the educational sectors for the children have been halted,” said Fazal Sabiri, head of an educational center.

Sources told TOLOnews that some NGOs have launched local educational classes for the girls and boys in remote areas of the country.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy (MoE) said that at least 178 organizations are active in the educational sector.

“There are 178 private--118 domestic and 60 foreign-- organizations active in the educational sector in 34 provinces,” said Abdul Rahman Habib, a spokesman for the Education Ministry.

It has been more than one and a half years since the Islamic Emirate banned female students above grade six from attending schools.

Sumaya, who is a student in grade eight, called on the Islamic Emirate to reopen their schools.

“We hope the doors of the schools are reopened as soon as possible because we need to study, and education causes us to improve,” said Dina, a student.

Earlier, UNICEF said that it had launched more than 5,000 local classes for students, and girls comprise at least 50 percent of them.