Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education on Saturday announced the start of the new school year and said that more than one million new students will be enrolled in at least 18,000 schools across the country. 

The ministry’s statistics show that at least nine million students are attending schools across Afghanistan.

President Ghani said last year that 50 percent of schools in Afghanistan are without buildings, 3.5 million children are deprived of education and at least 1,000 schools have remained closed across the country.

Statistics by the Ministry of Education show that almost 300 schools in Kabul are without buildings.

Talking to TOLOnews, the Education Minister Mirwais Balkhi said the Afghan government started construction 6,000 school buildings last year and that they expect that 2,700 school buildings will be completed by the end of this year.

He said that they expect that they will resolve the lack of school buildings by 90 percent within a year.

“At least 300 school are equipped with internet services and we are working to equip 1,000 more schools with these services,” he said.

He said that according to new figures, almost 500 schools were reopened and as many schools have remained closed, mostly due to security issues.   

According to Ministry of Education’s website, at least 49 million textbooks were published last year to be distributed for the new school year.

Lack of professional teachers, adequate textbooks and buildings has been one of the main problems for education over the past years.  

“I have studied both in public and private schools but the quality of lessons is not good in public schools,” said Arifa, a student from Kabul. “I call ongovernment to pay more attention in this respect.” 

“Our demand from government is to provide more opportunities for us and to build more schools,” said Erfanulla, a student from Kabul.  

Kabul governor Mohammad Yaqub Haidari who attended a ceremony on the new school year in Surobi district in Kabul said they will use all their efforts to support education.

“We will try that the children do not remain out of schools. The main reason of war, backwardness, use of drugs and other problems is having less progress in education,” said Haidari. 

A number of teachers said paying attention to education is the only option which can solve Afghanistan’s problems. 

“The learning cycle will not move forward without the teachers and instructors,” said Massouda Alamyar, a schoolteacher. 

“Education is mandatory for every man and woman. We should be careful and should not be deceived by anyone or any group,” said Burhanuddin Sedaqat, a religious scholar.