Schools Open in Afghanistan

NEA Marks Beginning of School in Afghanistan
The National Education Association staff participated in a walk to celebrate the first day of school in Afghanistan for girls and boys. Under the Taliban, girls were prohibited from attending school and it was a crime for a girl or a woman to walk in public. In Afghanistan, just 4.7% of females over the age of 15 are able to read.

Help UNICEF Get Schools Functioning
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is working to provide school supplies for children in Afghanistan through donor contributions. It costs less than five dollars to equip a child for school. One dollar buys two classroom maps of the world, while $300 buys a School-in-a-Box kit with enough supplies for 80 students. To support UNICEF’s work, visit www.unicefusa.org or call 1-800-FOR-KIDS.

UNICEF’s Sabakh/Let’s Learn School Campaign
Children are returning to schools in Afghanistan thanks to a UNICEF campaign to encourage parents to register their children for school. UNICEF has worked with the Afghan Ministry of Education to develop a network of social mobilizers to work with imams, community leaders, local officials and parents to ensure that children--especially girls--are registered for school.

The three key messages of the Sabakh campaign are:

• Education is important
  

• All children have the human right to education
  

• Registration for school is open to all--not just for boys or sons of the Taliban

Most of the estimated 4.4 million primary school age children in Afghanistan have never attended school. In 1999, it was estimated that 32 percent of boys and 8 percent of girls were receiving some sort of education. In some situations, girls as well as boys were educated in clandestine schools, which operated without the knowledge of the Taliban rulers. Now, UNICEF and the Afghan Ministry of Education are working together so that all Afghan children, regardless of gender, will exercise their human right to education.