Fact sheet: education

Literacy

• Only 12% of females 15 years and older can read and write, compared to 39% of males. [NRVA 2007/8]

• The estimated overall literacy rate for women between ages 15-24 stands at 24% (compared to 53% for men) [NRVA 2007/8]

Students

• Of the total 4.8 million children in grades 1-6, 36.6% are girls (2008) [CSO]

• Girls make up 32.8% of students attending secondary and high schools (2008) [CSO]

• The number of girls in high school almost doubled from 2007 to 2008, from 67,900 to 136,621 students [CSO]

• In 2008, there were a total of 56,41 students in all colleges/ universities in Afghanistan but only 17.7% were females [CSO]

• A total of 8,944 college/university students graduated in Afghanistan in 2008. Of these, 1,734 (19.4%) were female students [CSO]

• In 2008, the total number of students in vocational schools was 11,575. Only 15% were females [CSO]

Teachers

• In 2008, 28.5% of school teachers were women [CSO]

• In the same year, 15.2% of university teachers were women [CSO]

• Of 63 teacher training institutions in Afghanistan, women made up 36.7% of students and 42.5% of new students in 2008 [CSO]