Kandahar Education Directorate said that 35,000 new students enrolled for this year’s school year in Kandahar – which is an increase of 30 percent against last year.

The new school year started in September.

Last year, 25,000 students registered as new intakes. In total there are 277,000 children registered in schools in the province this year.   

The increase comes during a tumultuous time for the Kandahar education sector.  

According to Kandahar Education Directorate the lack of teachers, lack of buildings for 70 percent of schools, lack of books and other materials are serious challenges that affect Kandahar’s education directorate.  

Currently, Kandahar has 460 schools of which 321 are operational.

Meanwhile, Abdul Qadir Paiwastun, provincial director of education, said earlier this year that almost 400 girls graduated from 12th grade at the end of the 2014/2015 school year while 650 girls graduated in September this year – a sharp increase on the previous year.

He said however, that this figure was still very low.

He said at the time: “We are not satisfied with the graduation of girls in this province as it is very low. We registered 13,000 girls this year (2015/2016) but only 650 graduated."

At the same time, education officials also raised concerns over the impact insecurity is having on education. They said more than 100 schools had closed in Kandahar due to insecurity.