Fewer students attend classes in Afghan private universities due to worsening economic situation

The deteriorating economic situation in Afghanistan is causing fewer students of the private universities and higher education institutes to attend classes, reported a local media citing officials of the universities.

The Ministry of Higher Education had allowed the private universities to open two months ago, however, the public universities remain closed in the country, according to TOLOnews.

The quality of education services in private universities has declined since ever the classes reopened as the services are directly related to the students' fees, according to the officials.

"Income sources for private universities are student fees. There is no other source, so the universities face challenges," the news channel quoted the Administrative Manager of a private university, Farhad Amin as saying.

"Some educated people lost their jobs, the female students rarely participate in universities--these are reasons behind the problem. The youth are not willing to continue their education," TOLOnews reported a university teacher Rahmatullah Yousufi as saying.

Though the fees for each semester has been decreased by 20 per cent, yet the enrolment of the students remains down.

The news channel further reported that the students say that they have lost their jobs in recent months and therefore struggle with poverty. As a result of which they cannot pay for education.

"A major challenge for me and the rest of the students is the economic challenge, which most people--including students--face in society today," TOLOnews quoted a student Safia Muradi Wardak as saying.

Earlier, young Afghan girls called on the Taliban regime to reopen girls' schools across the country. Since the Taliban took control over the country, school-aged girls and young women from grades 7 to 12 are still deprived of education in many of the provinces, reported TOLOnews.

According to the United Nations Educational Organisation, nearly 4 million students in Afghanistan have been deprived of education.

Kandahar residents, meanwhile, have urged the Taliban regime to rebuild all those schools that have been destroyed in the fighting. They said that dozens of schools have been destroyed in the city and in other districts, and thousands of students have been deprived of learning, according to TOLOnews.

Recently, the Ghazi Mohammad Akbar Khan school in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province was destroyed in the fighting between the former government and the Taliban. The school's devastation is an example of the war's devastation in Kandahar.

"Anyone who sees this school says 'we ask our leaders to let the children go back to school,' but they said that a large part of the school has been destroyed," said Barialai, the principal of the school told TOLOnews.

( With inputs from ANI )

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