President Ghani beats school bell, vows to boost education in Afghanistan

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday vowed to boost education and literacy rate in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan.

"The government is determined to utilize all ways and means to boot education, improve education system and increase the rate of literacy in Afghanistan," said President Ghani in his address to inaugurate new educational year.

Both the government entities and citizens should work in harmony to support education in the country, the president said.

He also called upon parents to help government in boosting education and increasing literacy rate in the country by sending their children to school.

The government would bolster the professionalism of teachers to provide qualitative teaching to students in school, the president stressed.

President Ghani after expressing gratitude to international community for supporting Afghanistan over the past more than a decade, beat the school bell and formally opened new educational year in his country.

More than 8 million students, with some 40 percent of them girls, according to officials, are going to school in Afghanistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Afghan Minister for Education Assadullah Hanif Balkhi, said more than 1.1 million new students including 41 percent of girl students would enroll in school during the new educational year in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's Nawroz or New Year Day begun on March 20 and the educational year with beating the school bell commenced on Tuesday March 22.

However, countless number of school-aged children cannot go to school due to security problems in areas where anti-government militants are active. Enditem