Back to class in post-Taliban era

Girls going back to school for the first time since the overthrow of the Taliban regime take off their head-to-toe burqa robes as they enter the schoolyard

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- Afghan children ran, skipped -- and dawdled -- to school on at the start of a new year with women teachers back in class and everyday subjects like maths replacing the Islamic dogma of the ousted Taliban.

In a symbolic break with Afghanistan's war-scarred past, primary and secondary school children opened new textbooks on Saturday, that were rushed to the country in recent days after they were written by Afghan scholars at U.S. universities.

There are even pictures of people -- images banned by the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until blasted out of power in December by U.S.-led forces for harbouring Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Nine-year-old Maryam, who as a girl would not have been able to attend school if the Taliban had still been in power, shyly chatted with new friends at her central Kabul primary school.

"I'm so excited," she said as she proudly adjusted her school scarf.

Parents said they woke children early to brush their shoes, a somewhat vain attempt to send them to school looking perfectly smart after Kabul was hit by a hailstorm overnight.

"I'm very happy to be going to school so I can become a doctor or an engineer to serve my people," said 12-year-old Mohammed Rasul Bashir as he picked up his textbooks.

On the back covers were photographs of drug addicts and anti-drug slogans to discourage the use of narcotics in one of the world's leading opium producers.

Many left out

Afghan teachers greet each other at a school in Mazar-e-Sharif on the first day of school across the country

"The Taliban were fanatics and had a serious problem with science and technology. They paid less attention to math and sciences because they saw no need for doctors, engineers or economists," Abdulnabi Wahedi, a senior education ministry official, said earlier this week.

"They had their own agenda and tried to replace modern knowledge with their vision of Islamic learnings."

"We also teach about Islam, but with a view to modernism and progress," he told Reuters.

Despite 1.2 million children from the age of seven to 16 returning to school on time -- a major achievement for interim President Hamid Karzai's fledgling government -- at least three times that number will not get the opportunity yet.

The unlucky ones mainly live in rural areas where schools have been destroyed and there are no teachers because they fled during the Taliban's harsh rule.

The Education Ministry has rehired about 7,000 teachers sacked by the Taliban, including many women who were banned from working.

Over the coming year, Afghan authorities hope to absorb another two million children into the education system.

New war

President George W. Bush and Karzai have described revival of Afghanistan's education system as a new war that is as important as the military campaign that ended Taliban rule.

The United Nations estimates less than 32 percent of Afghan men and eight percent of women are able to read and write.

At mosques on Friday, religious leaders urged parents to send their children to school for the good of the nation.

Along with the drive for a wider education, authorities have also kept their eye on Afghanistan's religious sensibilities.

One shipment of textbooks was returned after they did not make a reference to God on their first page. Devout Muslims always begin a book or a speech "In the Name of God" in Arabic.

"We have removed any references glorifying war and Jihad, anything that reeks of violence and blood," said Nourollah, an Afghan educator."