MAZAR-I-SHARIF - President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday said the current education curriculum was not responsive to students’ needs and teachers were also under pressure.
Ghani, who arrived to a warm welcome in the capital of northern Balkh province, inaugurated the new academic year in Mazar-i-Sharif.
Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Noor, who also attended the ceremony, provided information about security situation, healthcare services, education development and infrastructure activities in the province to the president.
He said the number of hospitals and healthcare centers had increased from 11 to 136 in Balkh and a result the mother-child mortality rates had reduced.
Noor said 19 new healthcare centers were built in last solar year in the province. About education development, he said 680 schools and madrasas where 620,000 students studied were operational in Balkh.
Fifty percent of students in Balkh were girls and 55 percent of around 13,600 teachers were women in Balkh, the governor said.
Ghani thanked Noor for developments in Balkh and said he did not find better place than Mazar-i-Sharif, home to Mawlana Balkhi, Ali Murtaza, Rabia Balkhi, Ulema and Mujahideenm to ring the school bell.
“You practically saw Afghanistan is non-detachable from Central Asia, if the enemies of Afghanistan try to block roads on us, they should know we have access to many other routes,” he said.
He said Afghanistan would be connected with China and Iran through Kunduz, Balkh and Herat railways.
The resident said the current education curriculum was unresponsive to students and teachers were under high pressure.
Ghani said 6.9 million school books would be distributed in the next two weeks. A commission would be also created to monitor and evaluate education activities across the country.
After his speech, the president accompanied by Atta Mohammad Noor, Ulema and Hajj and Islamic affairs officials inaugurated a reconstructed mosque Rawza Jami Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif city. (Pajhwok)