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1 million new Afghan students start school
 A million additional Afghan students started a new school year on Thursday, but a raging Taliban insurgency will keep about 400,000 out of classrooms, the education minister said.More than 2,000 new schools were built over the last year to house the additional students in what is one of the biggest success stories in post-Taliban Afghanistan, said Education Minister Farouq Wardak. This year some 7.2 million students will attend school up from 6.2 million last year, Wardak said. But some 614 schools out of 13,300 were closed because of the deteriorating security situation in the country's south and east -- where the Taliban-led insurgency is most active -- denying about 400,000 students an education, said Wardak. Another 5.3 million children will be unable to go to school because of social and economic reasons, Wardak said without elaborating. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-06 |
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