(Pictured female classroom at Sayed Pacha School) by

(Pictured female classroom at Sayed Pacha School)
by Jackie Faye
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (March 31, 2018) – The excitement is palpable when their principal Mohammad Eissa walks into the classroom. The students at Sayed Pacha School yell “as-salaam-alaikum,” in unison. The Arabic greeting meaning, “peace be unto you,” is more appropriate than they realize.
Eissa has been fighting for education in Afghanistan most of his life, even going to jail simply because he wanted to teach math, and then in December 2015 his beloved school was attacked by the Taliban.
“On the attack day, it was late evening and we did not know how many people were attacking the school, it started all of sudden, there was fighting in the school, there were fighting in the buildings, there was fighting in the bazaar, so many people were injured,” said Eissa.
His brother was killed that day. His son was also hurt, but Eissa still did not turn his back on education.
“A country’s fundamental base is education and is vital in rebuilding Afghanistan,” he said.
The school did rebuild, reopening its doors in October 2016. Eissa recalls how much has changed at the school since he started working there 13 years ago. Back then the school only had 130 students; no one was enrolled past 11th grade. Today they have 750 students, ranging from 6- to 20-years-old, from 1st to 12th grade. Last year 130 students graduated.
“School is the place for education, people study humanity here. If there is no place for education, then there will be no humanity,” said Eissa.
Sayed Pacha is one of the schools that allow girls to attend – a definite sign of progress.
In 2001, under the Taliban, not a single girl was allowed to attend school and there were only around a million students in Afghanistan. Today, nine million children are going to class; 39 percent of them are girls, but the numbers largely depend on the region.
In Kandahar only 25 percent of students are girls, but that is more than it was, the challenge remains in very conservative areas, such as southern Afghanistan, where with each passing grade the number of girls in class goes down. In Kandahar, by 12th grade, boys outnumber girls seven to one, and the large majority of schools there do not allow girls at all.
Nationally, the majority of schools do allow girls, and by 12th grade boys outnumber girls three to one.
“The role of education is important for boys and girls; we shouldn’t say it is more important for one over the other. The education for girls is equally as important,” said one of the women teachers at Sayed Pacha, who asked not be identified.
She went on and said, “The girls in many places, they are not allowed to go to school, and there are two reasons that girls can’t go to school - one is the insecurity, the other is that the people are not aware of the importance of education for their daughters and therefore they don’t let them go to school.”
Eissa said he is counting on the Afghan military and police forces to handle the security part; he will continue fighting for education for little Afghan boys and girls.