Ghazni schools face shortage of buildings, teachers — Pajhwok

GHAZNI CITY (Pajhwok): Students in 19 of the 27 classes at Shaheed Abdul Salam High School in Qarabagh district of southern Ghazni province study in the open air, while local residents are constructing 16 classrooms for the school. The Education Department says 200 schools in the province have no buildings and around 3,000 additional teachers are needed. Students and residents said the shortage of classrooms and teachers had affected students’ education. They said studying in the open air had raised concerns about students’ health, while heavy traffic on the nearby Kabul-Kandahar highway posed a serious safety risk. Abdul Qadir Jalalzi, principal of the school, told Pajhwok that the school was established in 1372 solar year and currently had only eight classrooms. He said that due to the shortage of classrooms, students were forced to study outdoors in hot weather, rain and dusty conditions, negatively affecting their learning and concentration. Residents said outdoor classes not only affected students’ education but also their health due to exposure to heat, rain and dust. Mawlawi Abdul Razaq, a tribal elder from the Mishki area of the district, said students spent long periods studying under the sun during summer, with some falling ill because of the heat. He said the school was located near the Kabul-Kandahar highway, where fast-moving vehicles had heightened concerns about students’…