Taliban ends opposition to education for girls, claims Afghan education minister

Major U-turn revealed by Farooq Wardak on visit to UK

38% of students and 30% of teachers are now female

The Taliban has abandoned its opposition to the schooling of girls, according to the country's education minister.



Farooq Wardak suggested that ongoing negotiations with the Taliban would not compromise achievements in expanding the number of children at school in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the radical Islamist movement.



Under the hardline Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001 women were forced to wear the burka, a garment covering the whole body and head, and banned from working or getting an education.



Moved on: There has been a change in attitudes to women in eduction according to Afghanistan's education minister

Mr Wardak, who visited Britain this week for the Education World Forum, claimed there had been major shifts in views about schooling in Afghanistan since 2001.



'It is attitudinal change, it is behavioural change, it is cultural change,' he said.



'What I am hearing at the very upper policy level of the Taliban is that they are no more opposing education and also girls' education.'



'I hope, Inshallah (God willing), soon there will be a peaceful negotiation, a meaningful negotiation with our own opposition and that will not compromise at all the basic human rights and basic principles which have been guiding us to provide quality and balanced education to our people.'



Afghan officials are engaged in secret behind-the-scenes peace talks with Taliban leaders in an attempt to end the bloody insurgency that has wracked the troubled country for more than nine years.



Mr Wardak's words suggest that the negotiations have gone beyond issues like the release of prisoners to touch on areas of government policy.



Hardline: During the Taliban era the percentage of girls among the one million students in Afghanistan was zero

The education minister admitted that historically opposition to schooling extended beyond the Taliban to the 'deepest pockets' of Afghan society.



'That is the reason that in many provinces of Afghanistan we do not have either male or female teachers,' he said.



'During the Taliban era the percentage of girls of the one million students that we had was 0%.



'The percentage of female teachers was 0%. Today 38% of our students and 30% of our teachers are female.'



Mr Wardak also criticised the UK for not providing more money for schools in his country.



'My expectation is from the British Government that they should make more contribution,' he said.



The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) spent £12 million on schooling in Afghanistan in 2009-10.



A spokeswoman said: 'We remain committed to improving education in Afghanistan.



'Last year, the British Government financed the salaries of 169,000 teachers through the Afghanistan reconstruction trust fund.



'Through the national solidarity programme, we have helped Afghan communities to build schools in every province of the country.



'Under the Taliban, there were around one million children in school, almost none of whom were girls.



'Now over five million attend school - over a third of whom are girls - and more than a quarter of all new teachers are women.'

