Afghans Return to School in Droves

KABUL, Afghanistan —  Afghan boys and girls are streaming back into Kabul’s schools at a rate that is exceeding all expectations, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva said a “snap survey”--preliminary polling by the United Nations Children’s Fund of half the Afghan capital’s 200 elementary schools--found that 34% more children of elementary school age were enrolled than had been expected. About 202,000 students are enrolled in Kabul’s elementary schools, he said, and 100,000 of them are girls--42% more than anticipated.

During the hard-line Taliban regime’s five-year rule, girls older than 8 were not allowed to attend school.

Almeida said first-grade enrollment showed a 68% increase since school opened March 23.

The United Nations expects broader tallies of school enrollment from Kabul and around the nation by the end of the month. There have been complaints from rural areas that schools there have not been assisted to the same degree as those in the capital.

Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called on countries such as Australia that have large numbers of Afghan refugees not to pressure them to return home.

UNHCR spokesman Yusuf Hassan said in Kabul that 590,000 Afghans had returned to the shattered country since March 1, mainly from neighboring Pakistan, but that about 40% were finding their homes had been destroyed.