Pajhwok Afghan News, September 9, 2007


School set on fire in Balkh in Northern Afghanistan

According to officials at the Ministry of Education, 187 students, teachers and other staffers of the ministry and education departments had been killed

Zabeehullah Ihsas

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Unidentified miscreants burnt a middle school in Balkh district of the northern Balkh province Saturday night, police said.

More than half of Afghanistan's children are not going to school because of a shortage of places and teachers, the aid agency Oxfam says. Girls in particular are losing out, with just one in five girls in primary education and one in 20 going to secondary school.
IRIN and BBC News, November 27, 2006

Abdul Rauf Taj, Balkh police chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday the tented school, where 1,200 boys and girls were studying, was set on fire in the midnight. He said the arson attack was being investigated but no arrest had been made thus far.

Timoor Faiz, chief of Balkh district, said one tent of the school was completely gutted. However, the fire was stopped from spreading to the rest with the help of locals.

Around 1,200 boys and girls were studying at the school, said the district chief, who added that foundation stone of a building for the school was laid three weeks back.

According to officials at the Ministry of Education, 187 students, teachers and other staffers of the ministry and education departments had been killed, as many schools had been burnt and 350 more schools closed over the previous one year.

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