Education ministry officials said Tuesday that currently, there are 19,000 educational institutions in the country with an enrollment of about 10 million students.

Speaking at the formal accountability session in Kabul, the acting deputy Minister of Education said: “There are currently 19,000 public and private educational institutions with about 10 million students in the country, and a total of 242,000 teachers, including 92,000 female teachers, engaged in teaching in these institutions.”

According to officials, over the past year, 142,000 certificates have been distributed to Grade 12 graduates and graduates from madrassas.

In order to eliminate ambiguity and remove ghost employees, the exact number of teachers, students and schools have been tallied over the past year, officials said.

According to them, currently, 10,147,024 students, 6,243,809 male students and 3,903,215 female students, are enrolled at education facilities.

Assessments have also been carried out of educational documents of Grade 12 and 14 students. So far, about 400,000 students have registered for the exam to become teachers.

In addition to this, the ministry has undergone a change in the organizational structure, officials said. According to them, four deputies have been appointed while 67 directorates have been established and 290,000 posts created.

Over the past year, about 16,000 vacant posts have been filled by qualified staff and a further 10,000 posts will be made available soon.

With the help of UNICEF, 37 million textbooks have been printed and distributed in the past year. Officials also said that with UNHCR’s help, 20,000 tents will be provided and used as make-shift schools.

Abdul Khaleq Sadiq, head of the quality assurance department of the Ministry of Education also addressed the event and said the plan around reopening girls’ schools will be completed soon.

“The reopening of schools is an issue that all officials of the Ministry of Education are committed to, but this closure is a delay and the school reopening plan will be completed.”

However, members of the public have said the closure of girls schools is a disaster and that Afghanistan has long been a “victim of ignorance and illiteracy”. Members of the public have said the Islamic Emirate should provide education for men and women across all sectors, whether religious sciences or contemporary sciences.