Kandahar governor Toryalai Wesa confirmed that at least 110 schools have remained closed in five insecure districts of the southern province.

Figures by the provincial directorate of education show that Kandahar has 586 schools which enroll 332,000 students.

The governor called on the people to cooperate with the government in reopening the schools.

“Kandahar is the only province in Afghanistan in which five to six districts have no schools,” Hayat said.

In a hope to address the problem, a group of Kandahar residents at a gathering on Thursday called on the Ministry of education to pay the required attention to the problem.

They said the education sector is marred by many problems besides insecurity.

“The education system needs reform,” said Abdul Ghafar, a Kandahar resident.

“Lack of teachers is another problem which affects education in Kandahar,” said Shokrullah, a Kandahar resident.

A civil society activist in Kandahar said corruption in the education sector is still another problem which has not been solved so far.

“Salaries are allocated to the districts but there is no school or school building or teachers. This problem requires collective efforts to be solved,” said Shams Kamran, a civil society activist in Kandahar.

Figures by the provincial directorate of education in Kandahar reveal that at least 800 girls were graduated from high school in the province last year – which according to local officials shows a slight increase compared with previous years that was between 200 to 400 girls.

The Kandahar Education Directorate’s figures show that there are 377 schools in the province with 362,000 students including 79,000 girls. The figures show that almost 100 schools have remained closed in the province.

The figures further show that up to 60 percent of girls leave schools before graduating from high school due to security issues, families’ traditions and a dominant tradition against girls in society.

Figures out by Ministry of Education in September show that 3.7 million children are deprived of education in the country.

According to figures by UNESCO in September, Afghanistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, currently estimated at about 31 percent of the adult population (over 15 years of age).

Female literacy levels are on average 17 percent, with high variation, indicating a strong geographical and gender divide, the UNESCO indicate.

The figures show that the highest female literacy rate, for instance, is 34.7 percent, found in the capital, Kabul, while rates as low as 1.6 percent was found in two southern provinces of the country. Male literacy rates average about 45 percent, again with high variation. The highest male literacy rates are in Kabul, at 68 percent, while the lowest is found in Helmand, at 41 percent.