HERAT - Herat education department has appealed to parents, tribal elders and religious scholars to encourage children to stay in school. 
In the last year about 100,000 students, including girls, have dropped out of school in western Herat province for a number of reasons including threats by insurgents, poverty and traditions, officials from Herat’s Directorate of Education said Saturday.
"Nearly 100,000 students are not getting an education due to various reasons, including financial issues or other reasons and our efforts in the campaigns are to solve the problem as well as encourage (children to go to school),” Herat education department chairman Abdul Razaq Ahmadi said.
Ahmadi expressed concern over the increase in students dropping out and over at least 3,000 other children who are of school-going age but are not getting an education.
“All of our teachers, directors, school councils, influential people, tribal elders and Ulemas (religious scholars) must take part in efforts to encourage our children to go to school,” Ahmadi added.
Herat officials meanwhile said they will seriously assess why students are dropping out.
“One of the priorities of the provincial governor’s office of Herat province is to support education, pay attention to education and increase the quality of education in schools,” the governor's spokesman Jailani Farhad said.
Herat’s education department’s statistics show that currently nearly one million students are enrolled at schools in the province.