Higher education in Afghanistan pinched by war

The thirst for education is huge in Afghanistan. But rebuilding the educational system is not a political priority, writes Sandra Petersmann for Deutsche Welle. Some 150,000 high-school graduates took part in the most recent university entrance exams, but only 40,000 were accepted – a circumstance that generated a lot of anger and disappointment.

However, most of Afghanistan's 20 state-run and private universities lack qualified lecturers, modern curricula, books, networked computers, seminar rooms and dormitories. Nearly all students in Afghanistan who wish to study beyond a bachelor degree need to go abroad because there are no suitable programmes available at home – and that means going to Pakistan, India or Iran.

More than 30 years of war have left their mark. The academic reconstruction of Afghanistan does not have a high political priority and military expenditures swallow up most of the money.
Full report on the Deutsche Welle site