Kabul: Two days after Thomas West's remarks on girls' education, Ministry of Education (MoE) officials said it will reopen schools for all age groups, both girls and boys, at the beginning of the new year (March 21). .
Comments on the return of Afghan boys and girls to schools came after the United States' Special Representative for Afghanistan, Thomas West, told BBC Pashto that the US and the international community would be able to pay school teachers' salaries if the Taliban allow girls to open schools. intend to. Officials said they would decide on girls' schools without considering external pressures, adding that schools across Afghanistan had been temporarily closed and would be opened in the coming spring.
“If the international community and the US pay the teachers’ salaries or not, we, as the government, will open schools in the spring and this decision is not linked to the demands of the US and the international community,” said Aziz Ahmed Ryan, chief Said of the publication and public relations of the MOE. "The Ministry of Higher Education is making efforts to open the university very soon," said Higher Education Ministry spokesman Ahmed Taqi. Girls in grades 7-12 were barred from school in mid-August following the return of the Islamic Emirate to power in Afghanistan, prompting strong protests internally and abroad. “If the demands of the international community on the reopening of schools are not considered, education expert Khaleel Ahmed Kanjo said, we will witness the collapse of the government.