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UN
Envoy Hails Progress of Afghan Schools during
Global Action Week for Education
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan (SRSG),
Kai Eide, on April 23, lauded the progress made by Afghanistan’s schools
during a week of international action calling for the inclusive education
of all school age children around the globe.
Speaking
during a visit to Amani High School in the Afghan capital, SRSG Eide said:
”Education is a fundamental right for every human being, it fosters
dignity, freedom and is vital if we are to enable Afghanistan to mobilize
all the resources of its people. Afghanistan can be proud of the
tremendous progress that Afghan schools have made under the leadership of
the Ministry of Education.
“Before
2001 there were fewer than a million children in school and girls were all
but excluded from mainstream education. Today over six million children
attend schools and over 330 000 girls started school for the first time
this year, unprecedented in Afghanistan’s history. As we mark the
‘Global Action Week for Education’ I want to reaffirm our joint
commitment to reach out to those families whose children have not been
able to attend school; we want to see inclusive education for all of
Afghanistan’s children. They are the future of this country.”
Global
Action Week for Education is an international campaign supported by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The theme for this year is “quality education to end exclusion’.
Around 72 million children are excluded from schooling and over 700
million adults remain illiterate worldwide. The United Nations reports
that many children are excluded due to disability or gender, others
because of conflict and still more because of poverty or child labour.
UNICEF
estimates that up to one third of Afghanistan’s school age children are
involved in some form of labour and premature marriage continues to stifle
the educational prospects of many young girls, while the Ministry of
Education estimates that insecurity is preventing nearly 300,000 children
from attending schools, mainly in southern Afghanistan.
During
2007, the Ministry of Education with the support of UNICEF built over 3000
community based schools across Afghanistan for over 140,000 children in
remote villages with no access to formal schools while the World Food
Programme is encouraging poverty stricken parents to send their children
to school through its food-for-school programme which benefited over 2.5
million children last year.
[Source:
UNICEF]
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