PARUN (SW): Salam Watandar’s findings indicate that out of 1378 public sector teachers employed in eastern Nuristan province, only three have master degree.
Qudratullah Attayee, head of monitoring and assessment at the Education Department in the province, told Salam Watandar that Nuristan has 24 teachers for Mathematics, 11 for Biology, 12 for Chemistry, 3 for Physics and 7 more who teach Dari and English languages، and all of them are graduates.
Lack of professional teachers have affected the student’s morale, which have led them to be pessimistic about the “Kankor”, the university entrance exams. Last year, only 38 percent of the students took this entrance exam and only 39 percent made it to the universities.
Hafta Gul Darwish is one of the students who graduated from a local school last year but did not attend the university entrance exam. He said that he could not attend the university entrance exam due to the poor education at the school.
Wahidullah, a teacher who teaches Mathematics, said that he is also asked to teach other subjects like Physics and Computer Sciences. He said that the biggest challenge at the Education Department in the province is that there are no professional teachers who can teach specialized subjects.
According to Salam Watandar’s findings, 76 percent of schools in the province have no proper building at all, and out of 56824 students, 43340 students study in the open air spaces.
The head of monitoring and assessment at the Education Department in the province said that currently there are 236 schools in Nuristan out of which 180 have no building, and their students study in the open spaces. It has been a year now since Assadullah Hanif was appointed as the Minister of Education but the ministry has not made any progress, particularly in provinces.
Mujib Mehrdad, spokesman for the ministry, told Salam Watandar that 49 to 50 percent of schools in the country have no buildings, and the students study either in the rented buildings or under shelters.
According to him, Nuristan has more challenges in terms of education facilities compared to other provinces in the country. He added that the ministry would focus more on Nuristan’s education system as it is a targeted province in the current budget, which has been provided to the provinces.
Officials at the ministry said that they would conduct preparation classes for the university entrance exams in 300 schools in the remote provinces, which would be funded by USAID and Asia Foundation.
ENDS
