Blast walls, armed police officers and the remains of a bombed out building. On first glance it looks like any other army checkpoint in Afghanistan. But then there are the children sitting in ruined buildings on wooden desks, reciting lessons with little shelter from the scorching sun.
War has taken its toll on Assad Suri Primary School, in Kandahar’s Zhari district, about an hour’s drive from the provincial capital. Those walls that are not blown up by rockets and air strikes are shrapnel-hit and tumbledown. Even the blackboard is riddled with bullet holes.
Metres away from the pupils, a building hosting a police barracks is fortified with sandbags and armed sentries.
“People think it’s an army base. They don’t know it’s a school,” explains Akhtar Mohammad, one of the teachers. “That’s exactly what makes it dangerous. Students come here to study, but they immediately become a target.”
In Kandahar, 98 out of the southern province’s 366 schools are either occupied by armed forces or closed entirely, according to the provincial governor.
Across the country, the picture is comparably bleak. In 2018, 1,150 Afghan schools were closed due to conflict, the United Nations says, affecting 203,000 girls and 341,000 boys. In many remote areas, there are no schools at all.
Despite the Afghan government investing an average of nearly four per cent of GDP in education since 2001, the sector consistently takes a backseat to more pressing security concerns.
It is hardly surprising then that just 31 per cent of Afghans can read – one of the lowest rates worldwide, contributing to further rural-urban divides, with a majority of city-dwellers educated, and remote populations growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of centralised government services.
Education has experienced nine-fold growth since the American occupation in 2001, but provincial analysis shows a high proportion of out-of-school children, the World Bank says. Rural children are 10 per cent more likely to be out of school compared to the national average.
Originally built in 2003 with government support, Assas Suri school has been occupied for the past 10 years. First by the Taliban, then by the Americans and lately the Afghan army.
“When the school first opened, we had about 2,000 students, but Zhari district quickly became one of the centres of the war,” says community elder and former police chief Mohammad Dawood. “Dialogue between the government and opposition would help. They are our people, but we don’t communicate. The Taliban areas are still only half an hour’s drive away.”
Today, the school is partially occupied, with the local police having taken over several of the former classrooms, now fenced in by blast walls and barbed wire. Of nearly 300 students, only 50 are girls.
Aisha, aged nine, is one of them. To keep boys and girls separated, she attends classes in the afternoons, while boys go in the mornings.
“I’m not scared to come here,” she says, sitting on the floor in one of the bombed out classrooms. “Most girls I know can’t go to school at all. I don’t like the policemen roaming around, but this is my only chance.”
With an even lower female literacy rate of 17 per cent – most of them concentrated in the capital Kabul – Aisha is one of the few girls attending school in Zhari district.
“It’s already hard to convince parents to send their daughters to school, but it becomes even more difficult when schools are occupied by armed men,” explains Mr Dawood.
He continues to teach, even though he hasn’t received his salary of 3,800 Afghani – roughly Dh180 – in six months. “Payment delays by the government are common, but if all teachers were to stop work, there would be no classes,” he says.
Once school is out, he heads out to the fields to work as a farmer until late in the evening.
Ten-year-old Rahmatullah also works to support his family as a farmer in the afternoons, after attending school in the mornings. Wearing an olive green shalwar kameez, Afghanistan's traditional dress, he crouches on the floor of Shahid Niamatullah Primary School in Kandahar's Panjwayi District. He quietly talks about the war that has left his family devastated. "My father was killed by gunfire," he remembers. "I still hear the sounds of the bullets when I sleep."
Rahmatullah started attending classes when his school reopened earlier this year in January. Built in 2004, it only operated for a few years before it was occupied by Canadian International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops, then the Afghan National Police. Today the building is a school again, though bullet-riddled and with a heavily fortified army checkpoint just a few hundred metres away.
Panjwayi District is seemingly quiet these days, but bears scars of years of fighting. The dry and dusty area is specked with ruins of houses. Villagers point to the nearby hills, where insurgents used to hide in caves. Countless army and police checkpoints are reminders that the threat is still present.
“That’s exactly the problem. Bullets don’t distinguish between civilians and soldiers,” says Tom Ogwal, a protection coordinator with the Norwegian Refugee Council, advocating for the end of school occupations in Kandahar. “Students don’t only focus on their lessons here, but also have to learn what to do and how to act when there’s an attack.”
In Panjwayi District, school attendance remains low. Just 128 children – including 10 girls – attend Shahid Niamatullah Primary School.
Some parents say they feel comfortable with the nearby armed troops, considering them a protection force for their children. While teacher's salaries are paid from Kabul – often after months-long delays – local families contribute to the school’s upkeep, such as making contributions to buy text books.
For their part, Afghan police often see little issue with occupying education facilities.
“It’s due to economic problems that we use school buildings,” explains Haji Lal Mohammad, Panjwayi’s Police Commander. “Besides that, there is no need for all of the schools, that’s why the police are there. There are other schools operating in the area.”
Speaking from his office compound, which was built by ISAF, he adds: “A few years ago, this was a war zone and one of Afghanistan’s most insecure districts. We have to put up checkpoints to keep control of the area.”
But the province’s newly-appointed governor Hayatullah Hayat, previously the governor of Nangarhar who just finished his first month in office in Kandahar, opposes the use of schools by armed groups. “There’s a clear instruction that schools should not be occupied. We have to kick them out,” he says. “This year, I want all of the schools to be open again.”
At Assad Suri Primary School, despite its partial occupation by police and its war damage, the student register is slowly increasing. Children from 15 surrounding villages attend. In the early afternoons, the school is bustling as a few hundred boys pack up their notebooks, wave the police goodbye and make their way home on their bicycles.
"Some students and parents like the police and even feel safe having them around. But some don't like sharing the building with them," Mr Mohammad the teacher said. "Either way, I don't see things changing anytime soon."
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
More on Turkey's Syria offence
Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
- European Championship - 2008, 2012
Teaching in coronavirus times
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo
Power: 435hp at 5,900rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,800-5,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Price: from Dh498,542
On sale: now
In%20the%20Land%20of%20Saints%20and%20Sinners
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERobert%20Lorenz%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Liam%20Neeson%2C%20Kerry%20Condon%2C%20Jack%20Gleeson%2C%20Ciaran%20Hinds%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Other key dates
-
Finals draw: December 2
-
Finals (including semi-finals and third-placed game): June 5–9, 2019
-
Euro 2020 play-off draw: November 22, 2019
-
Euro 2020 play-offs: March 26–31, 2020
Sting & Shaggy
44/876
(Interscope)
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
if you go
Getting there
Etihad (Etihad.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Air France (www.airfrance.com) fly to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Return flights cost from around Dh3,785. It takes about 40 minutes to get from Paris to Compiègne by train, with return tickets costing €19. The Glade of the Armistice is 6.6km east of the railway station.
Staying there
On a handsome, tree-lined street near the Chateau’s park, La Parenthèse du Rond Royal (laparenthesedurondroyal.com) offers spacious b&b accommodation with thoughtful design touches. Lots of natural woods, old fashioned travelling trunks as decoration and multi-nozzle showers are part of the look, while there are free bikes for those who want to cycle to the glade. Prices start at €120 a night.
More information: musee-armistice-14-18.fr ; compiegne-tourisme.fr; uk.france.fr
Green ambitions
- Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
- Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
- Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
- Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
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%3Cp%3EBy%202030%2C%20Abu%20Dhabi%20aims%20to%20achieve%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%2039.3%20million%20visitors%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20nearly%2064%25%20up%20from%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%20Dh90%20billion%20contribution%20to%20GDP%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20about%2084%25%20more%20than%20Dh49%20billion%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%20178%2C000%20new%20jobs%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20bringing%20the%20total%20to%20about%20366%2C000%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%2052%2C000%20hotel%20rooms%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20up%2053%25%20from%2034%2C000%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%207.2%20million%20international%20visitors%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20almost%2090%25%20higher%20compared%20to%202023's%203.8%20million%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%80%A2%203.9%20international%20overnight%20hotel%20stays%2C%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2022%25%20more%20from%203.2%20nights%20in%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The biog
Name: James Mullan
Nationality: Irish
Family: Wife, Pom; and daughters Kate, 18, and Ciara, 13, who attend Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS)
Favourite book or author: “That’s a really difficult question. I’m a big fan of Donna Tartt, The Secret History. I’d recommend that, go and have a read of that.”
Dream: “It would be to continue to have fun and to work with really interesting people, which I have been very fortunate to do for a lot of my life. I just enjoy working with very smart, fun people.”
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3ECompany%20name%3A%20EduPloyment%3Cbr%3EDate%20started%3A%20March%202020%3Cbr%3ECo-Founders%3A%20Mazen%20Omair%20and%20Rana%20Batterjee%3Cbr%3EBase%3A%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Recruitment%3Cbr%3ESize%3A%2030%20employees%3Cbr%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20Pre-Seed%3Cbr%3EInvestors%3A%20Angel%20investors%20(investment%20amount%20undisclosed)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A