Limits on women's education in Afghanistan likely further weaken school quality

Restrictions on women pursuing higher education in Afghanistan are expected to exacerbate a shortage of female teachers, further diluting education quality

in a country where millions of children are already unable to attend school, UNESCO said on Wednesday.



Five years after the Taliban returned to power, about 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan are unable to attend secondary school, while more than 2 million primary school children are out of school, the UN education agency said.



Women have been banned from universities since December 2022, reversing nearly two decades of progress in girls' education, and are barred from teaching boys.



UNESCO estimates Afghanistan will have a deficit of more than 11,000 qualified female teachers by 2030.