Kandahar needs 3,000 more teachers: Education head

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): The education director says basic work and reforms are needed to improve the education process in southern Kandahar province.

Mohib Ahmad Rokhan, who took over as the education director 11 months back, called the education process in Kandahar as worrisome during an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the population of Kandahar was three million people, but the province had educational facilities for only 1300,000 individuals.

He said after his appointment, he designed a three-year strategic plan that identified four major problems in the education sector, which had not been addressed in the last 18 years.

He added the province needed 11,000 teachers while the current strength was 8000 and two millions text books instead of the available 50,000 books.

The director said lack of buildings and professional teachers were other major problems they faced.

Rokhan said during the last one year, he started bringing reforms and he was able to increase the number of teachers from 6,000 to 8,000 but still they lacked 3,000 teachers.

According to him, unfortunately Kandahar is not considered a first-class province like Herat province which has currently 21,000 teachers, Nangarhar 19,000 and Balkh 19,000.

Rokhan called tribal and political meddling another serious issue. However, he sought public help in this regard.

According to him, construction of 129 school buildings is underway under Iqra program and so far 60 schools have been readied for inauguration.

sa/ma