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Afghanistan: Tribal Elders Reopening Southern Schools
IRIN
Afghanistan
November 7, 2006
In an effort to reopen hundreds of schools, closed
due to fear of attacks from insurgents in southern Afghanistan, local
tribal elders in Helmand province have helped the government to open the
doors of at least 20 schools in the past two weeks, local officials said
on Tuesday.
The initiative came after local officials in the insurgency-hit south
announced last month that more than 300 schools were now closed
following attacks and threats from insurgents.
“Community leaders in Sangin and Nawzad districts have also raised their
voices and support for reopening schools and now we hope that many other
schools will be reopened for students in the near future,” Saifal Maluk
Noori, head of Helmand’s education department, said.
The elders, who command considerable respect and power in their
villages, have promised to guard and protect schools and mount a
community-based protection network to counter the threats from militant
groups.
Haji Abdul Sadiq, a tribal elder in Nad Ali district of Helmand
province, said that they have helped the government to reopen 14 mixed
schools in the district this week and were trying to reopen all the
remaining schools in the area.
“Schools were in a very vulnerable situation here so all the tribal
elders decided to work together and take strict measures to guard all
the schools in the district,” Sadiq asserted.
The initiative has widespread support in a region where girls’ education
increased markedly after the Taliban were removed from power in late
2001. “People were very happy and even some slaughtered cows during the
opening of schools in their villages,” Sadiq added.
Ali Mohammad, a student in the third year in Shekh Sori middle school in
Nad Ali district is now studying under a tent after his school was set
ablaze by insurgents five months ago.
“We love our studies and our school and hope it won’t be closed again
because we don’t want to be illiterate and ignorant,” Mohammad asserted.
“We need not only a new building for our school but more and new books,
chairs and desks here.”
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) spokesman Aleem
Siddique praised the initiative and called for its extension to other
parts of southern Afghanistan where many schools are still closed due to
fear of attacks.
“The news that schools are reopening in Helmand is encouraging. We hope
that this trend will continue in other southern provinces of
Afghanistan,” Siddique told IRIN in Kabul.
“This underlines the vital involvement of the tribal elders and
community leaders in helping to deliver real progress for Afghan
people.”
Currently, more than 200,000 boys and girls in the south are deprived of
education after some 150 schools were been set ablaze by insurgents this
year, according to the Ministry of Education in Kabul.
Mohammad Salim, another tribal elder in Nad Ali district, called on
government and aid agencies to rebuild burnt and destroyed schools and
assist teachers and students in providing books and proper salaries.
Helmand is home to Taliban militants who are waging a deadly
anti-government insurgency mainly in southern Afghanistan, following
their ouster in late 2001 by the US-led coalition. The hardline militant
group shut down all girls’ schools and banned girls and women from work
during their five-years of rule of the country.
There have been many attacks on educational institutions in the
insurgency-hit south over the past 12 months. Suspected Taliban
guerillas set fire to three primary schools in the Nawa district of
Helmand in January this year. In December 2005, suspected militants
dragged a teacher from his classroom and shot him at the gates of his
school after he ignored warnings to stop teaching boys and girls in a
mixed class in Helmand province. In Zabul province, also in the south,
in another gruesome incident, a teacher was dragged from his home and
beheaded in February.
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