Taliban to announce secondary school for girls: UN official

A senior UN official has said that the Taliban told him they will announce ldquovery soonrdquo that all Afghan girls will be allowed to attend secondary schoolsUNICEF Deputy Executive Director Omar Abdi who visited Kabul last week told reporters at UN headquarters on Friday that five of Afghanistans 34 provinces Balkh Jawzjan and Samangan in the northwest Kunduz in the northeast and Urozgan in the southwest are already allowing girls to attend secondary schoolHe said the Talibans education minister told him they are working on ldquoa frameworkrdquo to allow all girls to continue their schooling beyond the sixth grade which should be published ldquobetween a month and twordquoldquoAs I speak to you today millions of girls of secondary school age are missing out on education for the 27th consecutive dayrdquo Abdi said ldquoWe are urging them not to wait Any day that we wait its a day lost for those girls that are out of schoolrdquoDuring the Talibans previous rule of Afghanistan from 19962001 they denied girls and women the right to education and barred them from working and public lifeAlso Read lsquoAfghan govt will be inclusive not selectiversquoSince their Aug 15 takeover of Afghanistan as US and NATO forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from the country after 20 years the Taliban have come under increasing international pressure to ensure womens rights to education and workAbdi said that in every meeting he pressed the Taliban ldquoto let girls resume their learningrdquo calling it ldquocritical for the girls themselves and for the country as a wholerdquoWhen the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by a USled coalition for harbouring Osama bin Laden who masterminded the 911 attacks on the United States only one million Afghan children were in school at all levels he saidOver the past 20 years that figure rose to almost 10 million children at all levels including 4 million girls Abdi said and in the last decade the number of schools tripled from 6000 to 18000ldquoEducation gains of the past two decades must be strengthened and not rolled backrdquo he saidBut the deputy chief of the United Nations Childrens Fund said despite this progress 42 million Afghan children are out of school including 26 million girlsIf all girls are allowed to attend secondary school Abdi said efforts must still be made to overcome resistance from conservatives to allowing them to get a secondary educationldquoThe authorities that Ive met said that when they put in place the framework that they are working on it will convince more parents to send their girls to school because it will address concerns in conservative societies about separating girls and boys and female teachersrdquo he saidldquoSo that has to be seenrdquo Abdi saidWhile in Kabul the UNICEF deputy chief said he also visited a childrens hospital ldquoand was shocked to see how packed it was with malnourished children some of them babiesrdquoAbdi said the health system and social services are on the verge of collapse medical supplies are running dangerously low outbreaks of measles and watery diarrhea are increasing and polio and Covid19 remain serious concernsldquoEven before the Taliban takeover at least 10 million children across the country were in need of humanitarian assistance to surviverdquo he said ldquoand at least one million of these children are at risk of dying due to severe acute malnutrition if they are not treated immediatelyrdquoUN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres urged the world to prevent the Afghan economy from collapsing and help the Afghan people an appeal echoed by Abdi who said ldquothe situation is critical and it will only get worserdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever