Taliban’s war on education continues, UNICEF and UNESCO warn global community

WEB DESK: The UNICEF and UNESCO have jointly warned the international community that the Afghan Taliban’s ongoing crackdown on education has reached alarming levels, with basic human rights violations peaking under the group’s rule.

According to a joint report, since the Taliban seized power in 2021, Afghanistan’s education system has been systematically dismantled. The findings reveal that over 90 percent of Afghan children aged 10 are unable to read even a simple sentence, while 2.13 million children are completely out of school. Even those attending classes are struggling to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills.

The report highlights that the Taliban’s four-year ban on girls’ education has barred more than 2.2 million girls from attending school. If the ban continues, the number of girls deprived of secondary education could rise to nearly 4 million by 2030.

Enrollment among boys has also sharply declined — with a 40 percent drop in higher education admissions between 2019 and 2024. The report further notes that over a thousand schools have shut down due to lack of clean water and basic facilities, leaving millions of children without access to a safe learning environment.

Calling the situation “an educational catastrophe,” UNICEF and UNESCO urged the Afghan Taliban to end their patronage of terrorist groups and instead focus on rebuilding the country’s education and welfare systems. “It is time,” the report said, “for the Taliban to choose classrooms over conflict.”