Afghanistan
400 private schools close in Afghanistan
Kabul/IBNS: More than 400 private schools in Afghanistan have closed their doors due to reasons like economic problems, reported a local television channel Tolonews on Thursday.
Tolonews quoted Zabihullah Furqani, a member of the Union of Private Schools, as saying that many students have given up school due to poverty, while girls from grades six to 12 are unable to attend classes under the current restriction.
Chief Spokesman of the Taliban-run administration Zabihullah Mujahid has said girls have been restricted fromattending schools because of religious reasons, as per media reports.
Earlier, the Taliban administration's education ministry said the closure of girls' schools above grade six is temporary and would resume within the framework of Sharia, or Islamic laws, in the future.
Tolonews quoted Mohammad Daud, the former head of the Union of Private Schools, as saying that thousands of people would lose their jobs with the closure of the schools.
Afghanistan has been facing extreme economic problems since the U.S. government froze nearly USD 10 billion in assets of the country's central bank following the withdrawal of the U.S. forces and the defeat of the army of the erstwhile Afghan government in August last year.
As per a United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimate, 3.7 million children in the troubled nation are out of school among which 60 percent are girls.
(With UNI Inputs)
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