High school students could not be provided enough textbooks despite half of the academic year passed in southern Helmand province, negatively impacting their studies. Of 1.5 million textbooks required, only 200, 000 books have reached students so far.
Quatratullah, a student at Shaheed Eng. Abdul Matin High School in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, told Pajhwok Afghan News they had been lacking enough textbooks for the past three years.
“From class 7th to class 9th, we faced the shortage of textbooks and had to buy most of books from the bazaar, but there are many students who could not afford to buy them.’
Mohammad Jan, eight grader, said they possessed three to four books out of ten in their schedule and the shortage of books had negative impact on their study.
According to him, high school graduates from Helmand do not perform well in the university entrance test because they lack books to study.
Abdullah Jan, a civil society activist, said without textbooks students could not learn their lessons in a right way.
He said Helmand province not only lacked textbooks but also faced with the shortage of professional teachers.
Helmand education director Daud Shah Safari told Pajhwok that they had received 200, 000 textbooks this ongoing year and had distributed them among students.
“We need for one and a half million textbooks but we have so far received 200, 000, which are not enough,” he said, but he did not know the reason behind the shortage of books.
Safari added they had 118, 000 Dari language textbooks which they exchanged with the educational department of western Herat province’s Pashto version.
He said the exchanged books were for students of grade one to six and the process to distribute them among students in Helmand had started. He said another 27, 000 textbooks provided by UNICEF would be distributed soon.
