New schools have better conditions – No time to wait for painting
I should have come a month later. Then the two newly built girls’ schools would have been freshly painted and nice. Now, honestly, they look quite ugly, with their gray cement walls.
But in Afghanistan you can’t afford to be picky. There is an enormous need for school buildings, and as soon as the buildings are finished they are taken in to use. You do not have time to wait for the painting.
“We have good teachers and we feel safe here”, says Munija, fourteen-year-old, student at the school in the village Bishkan.
Bishkan is situated in the north of the northern province of Takhar. The school which opened in the spring has 483 students, 16 teachers – all women – and a male principal. Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) has been responsible for the construction of the school, with funding from the British Charity Afghan Connection.
“We shared the former school with the boys, but we had different shifts. It was crowded and we had lessons outdoors. If it rained the ground become wet and muddy, and some of the teachers didn’t want to come to work, says Munija.
Bishkan is located in an agricultural area. On fields and rolling hills wheat is harvested by hand. It is also a very poor area, where access to education gives hope for a better future.
The security situation has actually improved in this part of the country. A year ago, I had not been authorized to make this journey. The Talibans controlled areas on the road towards Bishkan.
The next new school building I visit is also situated in Takhar, in the idyllic valley of Warsaj. I was here about a year ago when they just started digging the foundation. Now the school is completed; a two story building where 563 girls study.
Before girls and boys studied in the same school; the girls in the morning and boys in the afternoon. Students had to huddle together to fit in the classrooms, and some had lessons in tents. In the new school they still use two shift, but since boys and girls go to separate schools it is no longer crowded.
“We are grateful for the support from SCA and Afghan Connection. In a month, during the holiday, we will paint the building. But we really hope that we can find money to lay tiles. It gets very dusty when the kids walk on the naked cement, says Naqibullah, assisting Headmaster.
Seen with European the strict separation between girls and boys might look a bit strange. Around the school Bishkan also runs a quite high wall, motivated by the girls need to be protected.
-At the former school sometimes boys showed up, says Munija
The strict division between men and women in Afghanistan is hardly beneficial to society, and especially not for women who get a very limited space in professional and social life. More mixed schools could contribute to a change.
Abdul Malik, the Headmaster of the school in Bishkan says he personally has nothing against schools where the sexes are mixed. But people in the surrounding villages do not want mixed schools, and would in that case not let the girls go to school.
-Already today we have problems with girls in the upper grades that get married and not get permission of the husband’s family to continue studying, says Abdul Malik.
