Education in Kandahar

Education in Kandahar

Ensuring good quality education and equitable access to education and skills are some of the important
ways to raise human capital, reduce poverty and facilitate economic growth. The overall literacy rate in
Kandahar province is 16%, however, while more than a quarter of men are literate (26%), this is true
for just one twentieth of women (5%). In the population aged between 15 and 24 the situation for men
is slightly lower with 22.5% literacy, whereas for women the figure if halved to just 2.7%. The Kuchi
population in the province has particularly low levels of literacy with just 3% of men and no women
(0%) able to read and write.
On average 23% of children between 6 and 13 are enrolled in school, however, the figure is around one
third of boys (33%) and just over one tenth of girls (12%). Amongst the Kuchi population, none of the
boys or girls attend school in either the winter or the summer months in Kandahar province.

Overall there are 271 primary and secondary schools in the province catering for 150342 students. Boys
account for 82% of students and 97% of schools are boys’ schools. There are nearly 2478 teachers
working in schools in the Kandahar province, less than one tenth of whom are women (7.4%).

Primary schools are the most easily accessible for students followed by secondary schools and high
schools. Around forty percent of students have a primary school located less than five kilometers away,
but 28% of students have to travel more than 10 kilometers to reach their closest primary schools. Over
a quarter of students have to travel up to five kilometers to reach their nearest secondary schools and for
forty percent this distance is more than ten kilometers. Accessiblilty to high schools is even more
limited with only 12% of students having their closest high schools less than 5 kms away. Two-thirds of
students, on the other hand, have to travel more than ten kilometers to reach their closest high schools.
Kandahar province also has a number of higher education facilities. The University of Kandahar has
four faculties including medicine, engineering, agriculture and training and education. In 2005 there
were 808 students enrolled at the university 795 men (98.4%) and 13 women (1.6%). Of those, 151
students were in their first year. These included 150 men (99.4%) and 1 woman (0.6%). Six hundred
and forty male students live in dormitories provided by the University.
There is also a teacher training institute which had 72 students in 2005, 70% of whom were men and
30% women. Nineteen new teachers graduated from Kandahar teacher training institute in 2005, of
which 58% were women and 42% were men.