With the public universities finally reopening in Afghanistan on Saturday, the students face a new challenge in the form of an acute shortage of professors, local media reported.
A number of professors among other qualified professionals left the country over the last several months post the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
In the last six months, around 270 instructors from Kabul, Herat and Balkh universities have left the country, said Tolo News citing reports. "We are facing a shortage of instructors. Not our faculty but all faculties are facing this problem. The majority of our instructors have gone outside the country. We need experienced instructors," Rabia, a student was quoted as saying. "We have studied just one hour of our five-hour class time. We don't have instructors and we don't know if they have left the country or been dismissed," Mujeeb Rahman, another student said.
Earlier this month, the Taliban regime in an official statement urged the professors who had left the country to return to rebuild Afghanistan. The Taliban regime started opening public universities starting February 2, with new norms of gender segregation and different class shifts for male and female students. The universities in colder areas of the country finally opened on February 27.
In Kabul University, female students, especially those coming from other provinces have also been struggling to find accommodation in the capital city. "The female students living in the dormitory have been told to study in their own provinces or otherwise not come to the university. The boys have access to a dormitory, but the girls don't," the report quoted Hajar, a female student as saying.
The professors who remain say that the Taliban regime needs to ensure their safety in order to encourage those who left the country to return. "The government should provide some guarantees such as personal freedom and protection. We have seen that some university instructors were living in bad conditions. This situation causes some of the university instructors to leave the country," said Mohammad Marhoon, an instructor at Kabul University.
