Hundreds of female students took entrance exams for Afghan-Turkish schools

Hundreds of female students took the entrance exam for Afghan-Turkish schools in Kabul yesterday (Friday) despite the Taliban delay in returning girls to school.

Reza Parsa, an Afghan-Turkish school official, said about 3,500 students took competitive exams for the Afghan-Turkish school system, with girls making up about 40 percent of the participants.

The move comes despite the Taliban government’s delay in allowing girls above grade 7 to return to school.

“We want all girls to be educated. This is the demand of the president and our government and the Afghans,” Changz Idmir, the Turkish embassy’s educational adviser in Kabul, told a news conference on the occasion of the Afghan-Turkish school entrance exam.

Saleh Sagar, head of the Turkish Educational Foundation, told Reuters that Afghan-Turkish schools had been forced to change their curriculum and close music, theater and dance departments at the request of Taliban officials.

According to him, the foundation respects the laws and culture of the host country.

It should be noted that Afghan-Turkish schools are among the top schools in Afghanistan and their admission is very competitive.

Meanwhile, with international pressure on the Taliban to educate girls, group officials have said they will allow all girls to return to school in accordance with Islamic principles.

Informally, however, many parts of the country have seen schools open to all girls in grades one through 12, while the Taliban officially say they are still working on a national system.