KABUL (Reuters) - Only 35 percent of Afghan schoolchildren are girls and while the number of children going to school is going up, the proportion of girls in education has remained the same, an aid group said on Monday.
The Taliban banned girls from school when they were inpower from 1996 to 2001, but there are now more girls ineducation than there were boys at school under the hardlineIslamists.
There are now more Afghan children in school than everbefore.
"Great achievements have been made in the education sectorin Afghanistan. However, more must be done to ensure that girlsare not excluded from education," CARE International said in astatement.
Thirty-five percent of Afghan children enrolled at schoolsare girls, CARE said citing Afghan Education Ministry figures,but "despite an overall increase in numbers of enrolledchildren, the percentage of female students is not increasing".
The lack of women teachers, only 28 percent of the total,meant parents were often reluctant to send their daughters tobe taught by men. Parents were also reluctant to send theirgirls to schools too far from the home, CARE said.
Nearly 150 students and teachers were killed and around 100schools burnt down by Taliban militants in the Afghan year thatended in March, the Education Ministry said, but a record 5.7million children were now in education.
CARE said around a third of state schools were exclusivelyfor boys and the number of girls in education could beincreased cost-effectively by alterations to these existingbuildings to ensure segregation of the sexes demanded byconservative Afghan culture or by different time-tabling forboys and girls.
Parents also need to be convinced of the value that Islamplaces on the education of girls, it said.
(Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by David Fox)