UNAMA marks World Literacy Day, emphasizes need to promote education

Sitting out in the open, children attend Pul-e-Rangeena government primary school for girls in the north-western city of Herat. Like many schools throughout the country, the facility has been overwhelmed with children returning to classrooms after years of conflict. Some 7,000 children attended this school daily in three shifts in 2007 and now in 2009 that numbered have risen to over 9,000 children. Aside from the main building that has 20 classrooms, there are 43 classrooms housed outside in tents and a new building that has been recently built by UNICEF. Due to large number of children attending this school, it is difficult for the school management to house all children in proper classrooms and hundreds of children have to sit out in the open. During rain, cold and windy conditions, school cannot operate and have to close school down completely. Even after rains, tented classrooms take in a lot of water and become muddy, making it creating further misery for children. In recent years in Afghanistan, chronic insecurity and renewed violence, especially in rural areas, continue to impede recovery from decades of war, and limit progress for all the country’s 25 million people – particularly its children and women. The nation’s social indicators rank at or near the bottom among developing countries: average life expectancy is below 45 years; 40 to 60 percent of Afghan children are stunted or chronically malnourished. Herat. Afghanistan.