Taliban killings of Afghan students triple

Of the 13 districts in Helmand, seven have no schools in operation, said Sayed Abrar Agha, the director of education in Helmand. District leaders like Agha provide the figures that Atmar cites.

Agha said he recently visited the town of Musa Qala — which was controlled by the Taliban until last month — and the head education official refused to talk to him.

"He's still afraid of the Taliban and doesn't want to meet with government officials," Agha said.

Atmar predicted attacks on students and teachers would continue to increase unless the international community and the Afghan government delivered protection.

Still, overall there is positive news in Afghanistan's educational comeback since the days of the Taliban, when girls couldn't attend schools and fewer than 1 million boys did. Some 5.8 million students now attend class, up from 5.4 million a year ago, 35 percent of them are female, Atmar said.

The Education Ministry's goal is that within four years 75 percent of all boys will be in classes — up from roughly 50 percent currently — and 60 percent of all girls — up from less than 30 percent today.

Schools also suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly female ones, and of infrastructure.

Linking up with Western schools
U.S. forces in the eastern province of Kunar are linking Afghan children with schools in the U.S., Italy and Germany that can supply pens, notebooks and chalk, the military said Wednesday.

"Being in the U.S., it is hard to visualize the lack of resources they have here," Army Capt. Jay S. VanDenbos, 30, from Tahlequah, Okla., was quoted as saying in a military news release.

Teachers are underpaid, and of Afghanistan's 9,400 schools, only 40 percent have proper facilities, he said. "Ninety percent of the schools are open-air schools, which are sometimes a tarp and a dirt floor. They'll have a rock that they use as a chalk board, and kids sit underneath the tarp and learn."

"Most of the kids want to learn. They yearn for knowledge," said VanDenbos. "Anytime anyone goes on patrols, the kids are screaming to 'give me pen, give me pen.'"

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