Insecurity and economic hardships have been influencing Afghanistan in various ways. Apart from targeting the people directly, they have been influencing their lives indirectly as well by keeping them away from positive activities. One of the positive activities that the people have been kept away from is the pursuit of education. Education is one of the most important requirements in the current scenario but unfortunately, the students are being kept away from it because of insecurity and economic hardships.
A current report has disclosed that in the last year about 100,000 students, that also included many girls, dropped out of school only in western Herat province. According to a statement by chairman of Herat’s Directorate of Education, Abdul Razaq Ahmadi, these students are not getting education due to various reasons that include financial issues or other reasons. Moreover, he has also shown concerns regarding 3,000 other children who are of school-going age but currently are not enrolled. This is the situation only in Herat; many of other provinces in the country also face such issues. Unfortunately, there is no reliable data in this regard and without updated information, it is very difficult to ascertain how many children are actually out of school and what measures can be taken to support them so that they are able to join schools and start their pursuit of modern education.
Modern education is a crying need of the country, but unfortunately, it has been targeted by extremism and terrorism. Particularly, Taliban have been against modern education to a large extent. They showed that during their rule in Afghanistan and show now as well by threatening schools and school-going girls and women in different ways. They have thrown acid on the innocent girls going to schools, poisoned them in different ways and even demolished their schools completely.
With the rise of Taliban in 1996, the decline of modern education system which was already not in a satisfactory condition, started. Taliban banned the female education and promulgated the madressah system of education. The students were confined to a single approach towards education and that was the Clergy approach, which depended on an extremist interpretation of Islam and Islamic concepts. Investigation and research were banned strictly, and students were not allowed to question their teachers. Rather, they were asked to blindly follow what the Clergy approach had to offer them. The basic purpose of education was thus non-existent in the so-called education system of Taliban.
Unfortunately, their approach towards education has not changed even now and they have the same view and approach regarding education. They even consider violence justifiable so as to stop such education.
Nonetheless, we need to understand that Afghanistan requires years of improvement and development regarding education; therefore, it is important that all the efforts that are meant to discourage education must be dealt with iron fist.  
History has been the witness to the fact that the people who have pursued education with complete devotion and dedication have been able to make remarkable development and progress. It has been through proper development in the education sector and education system that such countries are standing much apart from others with well-being and dignity kneeling before them submissively. Through their modern education system they have not only served humanity by opening new vistas of knowledge but have also facilitated their people by bringing comfort and facilities on their door steps. Apart from that, they are on the driving seat regarding the international socio-political scenario, while the countries that lack proper emphasis on education are left much behind in almost all the fields of life.
However, the nations that have opposed education have, in fact, blocked their own way to success. They are the ones who have actually themselves have tied their feet and hands with the ropes and are not able to move ahead even though they need to do so. At the same time, they are the ones who have blindfolded themselves and think that there isn’t anything around them to see. They are, in short, in the process of fooling their own selves.
Ultimately, they are the ones who would be greatly influenced by the negative impacts of all such behavior. Though they think that they are performing some great service to their nations by keeping it unpolluted and unaffected by the germs of education, in reality, they are bounding and isolating themselves and letting themselves decay instead of being active part of the real world that demands progress, growth and modern education.
Negative approach and efforts to discourage education are really tragic and the government must make efforts to launch practical measures to curb the situation. Condemning the incidents that are meant to discourage education alone would not be sufficient to discourage such ruthless activities and would in the long run deprive the people of Afghanistan from better opportunities to get education.
At present time, nothing is so urgently required for our nation as modern education – education that should be based on up to date information, analysis and developments in different fields of knowledge and must be aided with modern technology; education that can give the coming generation of Afghanistan an outlook other than extremism. And all these have to be provided to the people of Afghanistan without charging them much, as majority of the people are already suffering severely under the reign of deteriorated socio-economic situation.