American servicemembers, Afghan leaders celebrate girls' school opening

  • Published
  • By Capt. Stacie N. Shafran
  • Provincial Reconstruction Team Panjshir Public Affairs Office
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) --  Haish Saidqi Girls' School in the Panjshir province in Afghanistan resounded with laughter of children for the first time June 23.

Panjshir Governor Haji Bahlol dedicated the school-opening ceremony in honor of Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II, the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team commander who was killed May 26 when a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device against the PRT's convoy.

The Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team demonstrated its commitment to education by joining Governor Bahlol, Zulami Saheen, the province's director of education, and other distinguished guests to celebrate the school's grand opening. The PRT-funded school, which cost $145,000, has been under construction since last July. The residents of Rokha and the nearby villages of Shast, Pai Chinar and Molakhel formally petitioned for the school. Over the course of the academic year, more than 500 primary-schoolage girls will attend class here, many going to school for the first time.

As the little girls milled about their newly constructed eight-classroom school in the Rokha District, their faces beamed with excitement as teachers scrawled the Dari alphabet across freshly blackened chalkboards.

Although Haish Saidqi is designated as a girls' school, a small number of boys will attend as well. In this area of Panjshir, boys and girls can attend class together until third grade. After that, classrooms must be separated by gender.

"This school means a lot to the future of these girls," said Saheen, through an interpreter. "They used to study in destroyed buildings and temporary facilities. Now they have things like good desks and blackboards."

According to the Afghan Ministry of Education, there are 1.7 million girls studying in primary schools across the country. Only 30 percent of girls reach the fifth grade, compared to 56 percent for boys.

1st Lt. Dustin Koslowsky, a PRT engineer, has spent the past nine months overseeing the Afghan contractor and construction workers building the school.

"When I initially volunteered for this assignment I was looking forward to my first opportunity to manage construction; to see this project completed and put into use so quickly is exciting and satisfying. The contractor has worked hard and I am proud to have been a part of this project," he said.

Following the ceremony, the PRT signed responsibility for the school over to the director of education.

The PRT is facilitating 12 education projects worth $2.8 million, including nine schools, two dormitories and one multipurpose building that will be used as a library and laboratory.

Under the Taliban regime, all of Afghanistan's schools were religious and girls were banned from attending. The revival of Afghanistan's education system, especially the return of girls to schools, is considered to be one of the biggest accomplishments of the Afghan government since 2001.

Capt. Stacie N. Shafran is deployed from the 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs office here at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., to the Panjshir Pronvicial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan.